
Class 
Book 






GoppghtN"—/^ 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



EFFICIENCY 

PRACTICAL LESSONS IN LIFE 
INSURANCE SALESMANSHIP 



BY 
FORBES 4.INDSAY^ OwoltJo^ 



Fourth Edition 



PRICES: 

Boards - .75 

Leather - $1.00 



THE SPECTATOR COMPANY 

CHICAGO Office: 135 William Street, 

Insurance Exchange. NEW YORK. 
1917 



^0.^^-^^ 

^l^<^ 



Copyright, 1917, by 

THE SPECTATOR COMPANY 

NEW YORK 



13 1917 

5)CI.A477! 



-^ 



PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION 

Thk greater part of this book is reproduced 
without change. Communications from numerous 
readers indicate that it precisely fills the require- 
ments of the average life insurance agent. In the 
section referring to Endowment Insurance, an im- 
portant addition has been made by the explanation 
of the method of conversion from Endowment to 
the greatest available amount of Straight Life 
Insurance. This is a change which policyholders 
would often be glad to make if they were aware of 
the possibility. 

A chapter has been added upon a subject of the 
utmost importance to all salesmen. It shows the 
reasons why so many do not write a greater 
amount of business, and offers particular sug- 
gestions for improvement in this direction. 

F. L. 

Los ANGEI.KS, October 1, 1917. 



EFFICIENCY is the Alpha and Omega of Suc- 
cess. Efficiency is Fitness: it is the Faculty 
of doing things Rightly and Adequately. 
There is a Hindi proverb which runs: '* The road 
is paved with leather for the man whose feet are 
shod.'' In other words, Adaptation is the key to 
Facility. The man who has quahfied himself for 
his work will find conditions favorable to success. 
The untrained life insurance salesman is constantly 
encountering difficulties due to his inefficiency. His 
energy is more or less misdirected. His processes are 
largely haphazard and hampered by the friction of 
accident. In a word, he is Unfit and, consequently, 
Ineffective. 



CONTENTS 

rilAPTKK I. 

THE ESSENTIAL ATTITUDE. 

PAGE 

Self-Assurance — Honest Dealing — Earnest Attitude — 
Preparation — Scientiiic Salesmanship ... 1 

CIIArTER II. 

ELEMENTS OF LIFE INSURANCE. 

Participating and Non-participating Insurance — Forms 
of Life Insurance — The Premium and its Constitu- 
ent Parts — Methods of Using Dividends ... 6 

CHAPTER III. 

STANDARD FORMS OF INSURANCE. 

Term Insurance — Life Policies — The Monthly Income 
Policy — The Endowment Policy — Explanations of 
\"arious Forms and Illustrations of Peculiar Advan- 
tages 16 

CHAPTER IV. 

SECURING AND APPROACHING PROSPECTS. 

Preparation for the Approach — Meeting tne Prospect — 
Overcoming Obstacles to Interviews . . . .23 

CHAPTER V. 

PRESENTING THE POLICY. 

Divisions of the Policy Statement — Logical Sequence 
in Presentation — Discriminating in Selection of 
Forms — Motives that Move Men to Insure . . .31 

CHAPTER VI. 

PREPARING THE CANVASS. 

Scientific Method of Preparation — Mode of Setting 
Forth Data — ^Specimen Illustration of Monthly In- 
come Proposition — Memoranda of Arguments — Ver- 
batim Specimen Canvass — Explanation of the Design 
and Purposes of the Method 38 



viii CONTENTS ^ 

CHAPTER VII. 

CLOSING. 

PAGE 

Essentials to Success in Closing — Keeping Control of 
the Interview — Closing at the Earliest Opportunity — 
The Consecutive Stages of the Closing Effort — 
Method of Influencing the Prospect . . . .47 

CHAPTER VIII. 

COMMERCIAL LIFE INSURANCE. 

Purpose of Business Insurance — Business Insurance 
for the Corporation — Business Insurance for the 
Firm — ^Joint Insurance for Commercial Purposes — 
Specializing in Commercial Life Insurance . . 54 

CHAPTER IX. 

MATERIAL AIDS TO EFFICIENCY. 

The Use and Abuse of Illustrations and Printed Matter 
in General — The Advantage of Making Statements 
in Percentages — Prospect Cards and other Memo- 
randa — ^A Valuable Time-keeper and Check on Re- 
sults — Systematic Record Card— A Method for 
Detecting Weak and Strong Points — The Detective 
Card 60 

CHAPTER X. 

GENERAL SUGGESTIONS. 

Systematic Work — Securing Cash with Application — 
The Psychological Moment — Extra Issues — Making 
it Easy for the Prospect — Cultivating Policyholders 
— Warning Against Underestimating the Prospect . 72 

CHAPTER XI. 

INCREASING PRODUCTION. 

Why the Average Agent Does Not Do Better — Lack 
of Purpose — Working on a Quota — Failure to Main- 
tain Interest — Failure to Make Use of Policy- 
holders 7^ 



EFFICIENCY 



Efficiency 

CHAPTER I. 
THE ESSENTIAL ATTITUDE. 

ALTHOUGH the writer is not without hope that 
this Httle volume may be of some service to 
experienced Life Insurance agents, it is intended 
primarily for the use of beginners. To the latter 
this prefatory advice is especially addressed. 

The spirit that actuates you in an undertaking is 
of vital importance. Your success or failure may 
depend entirely upon it. 

What is your attitude toward the Life Insurance 
business? Are you treating it as a convenience or a 
makeshift? If so, your chances of success are slim 
indeed. Have you taken up the work as an experi- 
ment, or on trial? In that case you are handi- 
capping yourself heavily. The doubt in your 
mind is acting as a brake on your progress. 

If you would give yourself a fair chance to 
*'make good," you must set out with determina- 
tion never to turn back. You must bring whole- 
hearted devotion to your work. You must be 
moved by a singleness of purpose — by the idea of 
directing all your energy and faculties upon your 
business. 

When you have honestly attained this phase of 
mental attitude you are already a considerable 
distance along the road to Success. 

1 



2 EFFICIENCY 

PRIDE IN YOUR PROFESSION. 

In these days, Life Insurance is such a highly 
speciahzed business that it justl}^ ranks with the pro- 
fessions. Moie than seventy universities and 
colleges maintain courses in Life Insurance. 

Not a few of the most brilliant and able men in 
this country are engaged in the same calling as 
yourself. You may well be proud to claim it as 
your vocation. But, do not disgrace it and your- 
self by poor workmanship. 

Closely akin to Pride in your Profession is Faith 
in your company. ^'The best company" is a 
relative term in Life Insurance. 

Your company must be the best for you. If 
there is any better you should be working for 
it. 

Satisfaction with your calling and belief in your 
company will promote your Efficiency and, at the 
same time, excite the Respect of your acquaint- 
ances. 

SELF-ASSURANCE. 

Believe in yourself. Count on Success. Every 
victory is won in the imagination before the battle 
begins. The man who doubts is defeated ere he 
faces the issue. 

You don't know what you can do until you try. 
The outcome of a determined effort will surprise 
you. Aim at big things. What if you fail at the 
first attempt? Go to it again. The man who can 
come back smiling is the most formidable force in 
the world. 

HONESTY IN YOUR DEALINGS. 

Be square. Start out w4th a firm resolution to 
make Honesty control your thoughts and acts. 

Never fool yourself. Be a severe critic in Self- 
Examination. Be an exacting taskmaster in 
Self-Discipline. 



THE ESSENTIAL A P P I T U D E 3 

Remember your obli<^ation to your company and 
your duly to your manai^cr. From these sources 
you are receiving; assistance, without which you 
could not carry on your business. An investment 
has been made in you, indicating Faith in your 
Integrity and Ability. Don't betray the Trust. 

The adage "Honesty is the best policy, " is strik- 
ingly applicable to the business of Life Insurance. 
If you are permanently engaged in it, the best asset 
that you can create is a Reputation for Honest 
Dealing. It will act as a sinking fund, steadily 
earning interest, and affording you a perpetual 
source to draw upon for new business. 

In considering a contract for a prospect, banish 
all calculation of commission. Base your recom- 
mendation on sincere judgment of his best interests. 
Every policy properly placed will put a permanent 
support under your structure of Success. 

THE EARNEST ATTITUDE. 

I have made no mention of Enthusiasm. It is 
apt to be fleeting and ill-balanced. Earnestness is 
a more serviceable quality. 

Enthusiasm is the smoke and report of a 
musketry discharge. Earnestness is the bullet. 
Both emanate from the same source, but one repre- 
sents emotion: the other force. Enthusiasm is less 
substantial, less durable than Earnestness. The 
former may excite a prospect's interest, the latter 
will secure his signature. 

In order to produce good results, you must have 
an Earnest Interest in your work. In order to have 
and to hold Interest, you must understand your 
business and be conscious of a certain degree of 
expertness in it. And nothing can keep your 
Interest alive to the same extent as constantly 
increasing Knowledge and Efficiency, accompanied, 
as they must necessarily be, by steadily growing 
Success. 



4 EFFICIENCY 

RECEPTIVENESS TO TEACHING. 

Successful men in every walk of life realize their 
limitations and need of improvement. The ''know- 
it-alls" are always found in the ranks of failures. 
Commencing as poor workmen, they gain, from 
sheer experience, a moderate measure of ability, 
remain stationary for a few years, and then 
retrograde. Without ever having run through 
a respectable edition, they become back num- 
bers. 

To increase your Efficiency, you must be 
conscious of shortcoming and anxious to learn. 
Maintain a good opinion of your ability, cherish 
self-respect, cultivate confidence — but don't en- 
tertain the fatuous idea that you are beyond the 
range of instruction. 

PREPARATION. 

There is nothing more important in life than 
Preparation. The successful man is he who turns 
opportunities to account, and this can only be done 
by being prepared for them. 

Preparation as applied to Life Insurance sales- 
manship is general and specific. The scope of it 
is practically unlimited. Physical culture, mental 
training, acquisition of knowledge — all these are in 
line with it. As long as you remain in the business 
you will be engaged in Preparation — general pre- 
paration for greater accomplishment, and special 
preparation for particular efforts. 

This phase of Efficiency is in itself an extensive 
subject which, if we should pursue it, would lead 
us into the fields of logic, psychology, and other 
abstract studies. In the following pages we shall 
be restricted to consideration of the acquisition 
of technical knowledge and practical methods of 
sellino: Life Insurance. 



THE E:=;SEXTTAL ATTITUDE 5 

SCIENTIFIC SALESMANSHIP. 

Have you a definite idea of an efficient canvass? 
Probably not. It is one for which preparation has 
been made by securin^^ all available information 
about the prospect, by a carefvd analysis of the 
concrete proposition to be presented, and by a 
thorough, rehearsal of the main argument to be 
advanced. It is one in which the prospect's case 
is treated as a particular problem to be solved in a 
definite manner. It is one in which instead of a 
stereotyped description of the policy, just such 
features of it as may be calculated to appeal to 
the individual in the case are explained and dwelt 
upon — and no more. It is one which is brought to 
a successful conclusion by alert, discriminating 
brain work, by discovering and playing on .the 
motive through which the prospect may most 
readily be led to desire the policy and resolve to 
take it. 

Any man may qualify himself to make his can- 
vasses habitually in this manner — no one but may 
become, if he will, a good closer; that is, master of 
his business. You have been told, perhaps, that 
good closers are born such. Some of them are, 
but many others, and among them the best, are 
self-made and with pretty poor material to start 
on, at that. 

You can, with reasonable application and 
diligence, convert yourself from a mere hack 
to a scientific salesman. It is surely worth the 
time and trouble. 



CHAPTER II. 
THE ELEMENTS OF LIFE INSURANCE. 

SOME time ago an automobile salesman en- 
deavored to sell me a machine. In the 
course of a short talk he interested me greatly. I 
did not see him again for several weeks. When he 
next appeared, I learned that the interim had been 
passed at his company's works. He talked for an 
hour on the processes of manufacture and when he 
left I hoped never to see him again. You see, I was 
thinking of buying a car, — not of setting up a 
factory. 

So in Life Insurance, three months in the factory 
— the actuary's department — would ruin the best 
salesman. Your prospect doesn't want to learn how 
we manufacture our policies. He is interested in 
hearing about the working parts and the service he 
may derive from them. 

It is sufficient for you to know the elementary 
principles of Life Insurance in their practical bear- 
ing on your work. You can write applications 
efficiently with no more technical know^ledge than 
that of the composition of a premium and the 
operation of the mortality tables. 

You must not misunderstand me, however. The 
danger I am warning you against is not the acquisi- 
tion of knowledge, but the misuse cf it. This is 
almost sure to result from too great attention to the 
technicaHties of the business. 

A well-balanced daily ration would consist of one 
part theory and nine parts practice, and the 
former should have a close relation to the latter. 

6 



E L K M K \ T S () F L I F F I \ S I P. A \ (' F 7 

For example, let us suppose Lluil in the eourse of a 
day's work, you come into com])etition with 
another company, and take occasion to famiHarize 
yourself with one or more of its ])oHcics. You have 
gained useful knowledge in a much more practi- 
cal and desirable manner than if you should sit 
down to study the contracts of half a dozen com- 
panies, with an indefinite view to possible future 
contingencies. 

PARTICIPATING AND NON-PARTICIPATING 
INSURANCE. 

Legal Reserve life insurance is issued on two 
general plans. Under one of these the premium is 
subject to reduction by dividends. Under the 
other, the premium rem.ains constant at a guar- 
anteed figure. 

Participating and Non-participating insurance 
have advantages peculiar to each system. As a 
practical issue the choice between the plans should 
be influenced by consideration of the particular 
requirements of the individual insurer. 

FORMS OF LIFE INSURANCE. 

There are but two basic forms of Life Insurance — 
Term Insurance and Pure Endowment. The 
principle of the former is the payment of a certain 
amount at the death of the insured ; of the latter, the 
payment at the end of a specified period provided 
the insured is living. The combination of these 
two forms in varying degrees produces the many 
standard forms of life insurance. The Whole Life 
contract is simply term insurance for the entire hfe 
expectancy and the insured is required to pay 
premiums as long as he lives. The Limited Pay- 
ment Life policy is identical with the Whole Life, 
except that the insured commutes the payments 
that he would be called upon to make under a 



8 EFFICIENCY 

Whole Life policy, undertaking instead to complete 
the purchase of the policy with a definite number of 
payments. An Endowment policy is a direct 
combination of Term insurance and Pure Endow- 
ment, and as a result provides for a certain amount 
either at the death of the insured or at the end of a 
specified period if the insured is then living. The 
Monthly Income policies differ only from the 
standard contracts in the manner of paying the 
claim. vSuch policies may be written on the life, 
limited payment life, or endowment plans. 

THE PREMIUM— How It Is Constructed. 

We will now analyze a Whole Life Participating 
premium at age thirty-three, using this as a medium 
for demonstrating why certain amounts are charged 
for Life Insurance and what becomes of the money. 
Our figures will be approximations and may vary 
a little from technical precision for the sake of 
readier understanding. 

At the outset, let me ask you to bear constantly in 
mind that interest and the law of averages are the 
bases of all life insurance calculations and the 
eft'ective factors in all life insurance results. 

All practical working premiums are composed of 
three elements: Mortality, or cost arising from 
death losses during the year; Reserve, the portion 
set aside for future losses ; and Loading or Expense 
fund. For the premium under consideration, as 
paid for the first year, the segregation of these 
various elements is as follows : 

WHOLE LIFE ANNUAL DIVIDEND. 

Age 33 Premium $26.35 

MortaHty $ 9.00 

Reserve 11.00 

Loadin": 6.00 



ELEMENTS OF LIFE INSURANCE 9 

THE MORTALITY CHARGE. 

Life Insurance com]mnics calculate their ^'ex- 
pected" or mathematical mortality on certain 
statistics representint^ extensive experience. These 
tables may be relied upon to indicate the number of 
deaths at various ages which a well-managed com- 
pany will need to provide for yearly. The actual 
experience may vary from the tabular figures in 
certain years or even -constantly, but there will 
be an average correspondence in any short period, 
say eight years, and throughout the company's 
operation. 

Let us assume a group of looo men, aged 33, as 
being insured for $1000 each. The American 
Experience Table of Mortality calls for 9 deaths 
per thousand per annum at that age, so that $9000 
would be required to meet the claims, and a con- 
tribution of $9 from each man would furnish the 
necessary sum. 

If the insurance were terminable at the end of the 
year, there would be no need to collect a greater 
amount. The mortality, however, is steadily 
increasing. Whilst $9000 would meet the death 
losses in the assumed group for the first year, it 
would require $15 per 1000 to do so in the twentieth 
year, and when the members had reached the age 
of 65, they would die at the rate of 40 per 
thousand. 

This increase in mortality might be, and, indeed, 
sometimes has been, provided for by a gradually 
rising premium. The objections to such an 
arrangement are obvious. 

The method in general practice is the Uniform 
Annual Premium system. Under this a certain 
premium is fixed for the age at entry, and the same 
amount is charged every year throughout the life 
of the insured. For instance, excluding the margin 
for expense, at age 33, the constant annual payment 
of $20 is equivalent to graduated paym^ents 



10 EFFICIENCY 

beginning with $9.00 and increasing yearly during 
the Hfe of the insured. 

THE RESERVE. 

This $20 at 3 per cent, interest will amount to 
$20.60, — let us say, for the sake of convenience, 
$21, — at the end of the first 3^ear. Death losses 
will call for $9, leaving $12. Now, this $12 is the 
nucleus of a sinking fund which will provide for the 
continuously increasing cost of insurance. Each 
year the difference between the net premium of $20 
and the amount of the tabular Mortality is set 
aside and constantly improved at interest. The 
fund thus created is called the Reserve. 

The aggregate of policy Reserves represents the 
resource on which the Company depends to meet its 
contractual obligations. The maintenance of the 
Reserve with accrued interest constitutes a distinct 
liability, — is, in fact, a legal requirement. Its 
impairment would entail technical insolvenc3^ 

The Mortality and Loading elements of the 
premium being used annually in the discharge of 
current liabilities, the Reserve represents all the 
money standing to the credit of a policy, — with the 
possible exception of dividends, which we shall 
consider later. The Reserve provides the Loan and 
Surrender Values, pays the Endowment, purchases 
the Paid-up Policy, and aids in the discharge of 
Death Claims. 

THE LOADING. 

We have seen that $20 paid annually by a man 
entering at age 33, and corresponding sums by men 
of other ages, will suffice to meet all death losses as 
they occur. But this does not leave any money for 
Expenses, or for losses other than by death in 
accordance with the tabular expectation. It is 
necessary to add to the net premium a loading to 



ELEMENTS OV LIFE IXSrirWCK U 

provide for expense of manaf^ement, taxes, possible 
impairment of investments, etc. 

The net premium is the result of mathematical 
calculation on exact data. The Loading is an 
arbitrary amount, but much the same with all 
companies. 

The principle illustrated here in connection with 
the Whole Life policy is applied to all forms of 
insurance. Knowin<^ the Level Premium necessary 
to be paid for life at a certain age, it is a simple 
calculation to arrive at the present worth of the 
future payments, and so fix the Single Premium. 
It is equally easy to equate these future pa^^ments 
into ten, fifteen, or. twenty premiums. As a matter 
of fact, the Actuary first finds his Single Premium 
and makes it the basis for calculating other 
premiums. 

The same principle applies to Endowment insur- 
ance. At age 33, the premium on a 20-year 
Endowment is $50.80. The Reserve is approxi- 
matel}^ $35. This Reserve, together with the 
amounts accumulated from the succeeding 
premiums, with 3 per cent, compound interest will 
amount to $1000 at the end of the endowment 
period. 

THE PREMIUM— What Becomes of It. 

Each policy account is kept separately and in 
detail. In the case which we are considering the 
first year's statement would reveal something like 
the following results : 

Premium $26.35 

Expenses at 15% 3.95 

Effective Premium $22.40 

Interest for one year, assuming 

rate of 59c 112 

Accumulating Fund at end of year . $23.52 



12 EFFICIENCY 

Accumulating^ Fund at end of year . $23.52 

Reserve at end of year $11 .85 

Mortality Cost, $8.62, assuming 

a saving of 15% 7.32 

Total amount demanded $19.17 

Balance $ 4.35 

It should be explained that the Expense element of 
the premium is abstracted from it at the beginning 
of the year. The amount in question is used to 
meet current expenditures, and interest is not calcu- 
lated upon it. This item is necessarily much larger 
in the earlier years than later, owing to the expense 
of placing the business on the books. For the sake of 
convenience an average rate of 15% has been 
assumed and applied to both exhibits. 

The elements of the Net Premium are separated 
and applied to their respective accounts at the end 
of the year, and after a full year's interest has been 
earned on them. Usually it is found that the 
actual Mortality experience does not call for 
the appropriation of the full amount charged for the 
purpose, and a balance is carried to the Surplus 
fund. 

The next year's account would be simrilar except 
for the addition of the previous year's Reserve, 
making in all $11.85 ^^^ $22.40 or $34.25 at the 
beginning of the year to be placed at interest. 

The amount at risk decreases in proportion to 
the growth of the Reserve, although the Mortality 
increases at the same time. Let us take the 20th 
year. The death-rate will be $15 per thousand, con- 
sequently the tabular Mortality cost will be $15 
for one thousand of insurance. But each reserve 
fund has accumulated $306, so that the amount at 
risk is not $1000, but the difference between these 
amounts or $694. The individual contribution 
necessary to meet the death losses is not $15 but 



ELK MK NTS OF LIFE INSURANCE 13 

$10.40, for if 15 die, involvin*.^ a loss of $15,000, and 
each has a reserve of $306, a^^M^a'ei^^ating $4590, the 
net loss is only $10,410. In the 20th year the 
policy account would be somewhat as follows: 

Premium $ 26.35 

Expense at 15% 3.95 • 

Effective Premium $22.40 

Reserve from previous year 287.90 

Interest on $310.30 at 5% 15.52 $325.82 

Mortality Cost $10.68 

Reserve carried forward 306.33 $317.01 



Balance $ 8.81 

THE SURPLUS. 

Our two policy statements show that the insured 
paid $4.35 more than was necessary the first year 
and $8.81 in the 20th year, and of course, there was 
a varying excess through intermediate years. 

If the company had reahzed exactly 3% on its 
invested assets; if the death losses had exactly 
corresponded with the mortality tables, and if the 
entire loading had been used yearly, the amount on 
hand at the end of each year would have been the 
aggregate Reserves with the accmed Interest. 
We have seen, however, that Interest earnings in 
excess of the calculated rate, gains from careful 
selection of risks and economy in management will 
create savings. The sum total of these savings is 
called the Surplus. 

As the experience of the company in the matters 
of [Mortality, Expense, and Interest are apt to vary, 
a portion of the earned vSurpluS is retained to pro- 
vide for contingencies. The balance is divided 
among the policy-holders in the form of dividends. 

In the case under consideration the Surplus the 



14 EFFICIENCY 

first year is $4.35 and at the end of the 20th year 
$8.81. The company would pay dividends of 
about 16% and 34% respectively. 

There are several ways of disposing of dividends. 
They may be : 

(i) Applied in cash to reduce the succeeding 
'premium. 

(2) Left with the company to accumulate at 

Compound Interest. 

(3) Used as a Single Premium to purchase Rever- 

sionary Additions. 

(4) Employed to accelerate the Reserve accumula- 

tion, with a view to curtailing the premium- 
paying period. 

(5) Retained by the company for a certain period, 
to be paid at the end of the stipulated time only in 
the event of the policy being in force. 

The first-named option, although the least profit- 
able to the policy-holder, is the most frequently ex- 
ercised; the second is the same in effect as the 
fourth; the last — called the 'deferred dividend 
system of distribution" — is virtually abolished. 

To the man whose chief consideration is protec- 
tion, the privilege of converting his dividends into 
Paid-up Insurance additions to his policy should 
be the most attractive. To illustrate the working 
of this method : Let us assume that our hypotheti- 
cal policy-holder uses his first year's dividend — 
16% of the premium, $4.35, in this manner. At 
age 34, this amount will buy about $10 of Paid- 
up Insurance. In the event of his death in the 
following year, $1010 would be paid by the com- 
pany. In the 20th year, when he is 54 years old, 
his dividend of $8.81 will purchase an addition of 
about $15 which, together with his former addi- 
tions, will have grown to about $240. The Insured 
may at any time surrender these paid-up additions 
for their reserve value which is available to him in 
Cash in the same manner as is the Reserve Cash 
Value of his original policy. 



ELEMENTS OF LIFE INSURANCE 15 

Another way of looking at the advantaj^e of 
allowing dividends to purchase paid-up additions 
to the policy is as follows : 

Under a Twenty Payment Life policy issued at a^e 
33 the contract would have a paid-up life insur- 
ance value in the seventeenth year of about $843. 
If the dividend apportioned under this policy 
had been allowed to purchase paid-up additions 
the sum of such additions would unquestionably 
by the end of the seventeenth year be sufficient 
when added to the paid-up value of the policy as 
stated to produce a total paid-up amount of $1000. 
In this way it may be considered that the premium- 
paying period is shortened three years, giving the 
insured a paid-up policy for the original face amount 
after the payment of seventeen premiums instead 
of twenty. 



CHAPTER III. 
STANDARD FORMS OF INSURANCE. 

MOST life insurance policies combine the two 
elements of protection and investment. It 
is for each applicant to decide which of these is of 
greater value to him. 

It is possible for the insured to secure either of 
these features without the other. He may take a 
Pure Endowment, which has no insurance element; 
or he may obtain a contract affording protection 
solely. An insurance company will undertake to 
pay a certain sum in the event of his death during 
a period of five, ten, fifteen, or twenty years, but to 
return nothing to him should he outlive the period. 
This is pure protection and is called Term Insur- 
ance. It is similar to fire insurance, — a specific 
payment to cover a specific risk, without any 
contingent benefit. 

Ordinarily the Term policy provides for renewal, 
or extension over another period on the same 
conditions, except for an increased premium to 
correspond with the advanced age. The contract 
also usually includes the privilege of converting 
the Term policy, at any time, to some permanent 
form of insurance. The exercise of either of these 
options must involve a loss on account of the higher 
cost of insurance at the later age of the insured, 
unless a change is made to a policy of the same 
date as the original Term contract, and this 
generally necessitates the outlay of a considerable 
amount of money to cover the deficiency in back 
premiums. 

Term insurance affords the greatest amount of 

16 



STAND A K I) FORMS OF INSURANCE 17 

protection temporarily, for a given ])remium out- 
lay. This is the sole advantage to be urged in its 
favor. It is the lowest in cost and also in service- 
able qualities. Beyond a few years, say seven, it 
is the most expensive form of insurance, for the 
reason that the gross payments under it represent 
net cost, whereas, under a Life or Endowment policy 
the surrender value deducted from the aggregate 
premiums will reduce the net outlay to less than 
under the Term polic3^ 

Term insurance is much in the nature of a make- 
shift. The cases are rare indeed in which it is to 
the best advantage of the insured to take it. 
Occasionally you will come in contact with a man 
who cannot pay for an adequate amount of protec- 
tion under a higher premium. You should give him 
Term insurance, but keep closely in -touch with him 
for the purpose of converting his policy as soon as 
possible. 

In the majority of instances your prospect for 
Term insurance will be a business man who desires 
to cover some liability or protect himself against 
some contingency for a short period of time. 
Provided that he is sure that he will have no need 
for the insurance beyond seven years, let us say, 
the Term policy may be the most economical. 
However, experience proves that, in the majority of 
cases, the end of the calculated period finds the 
holder of the Term policy still in need of insurance 
and regretful that he did not take it on a permanent 
form. Furthermore, the possessor of a Term 
contract often wishes that he had paid a higher 
premium and thereby created a collateral value in 
his policy. 

LIFE POLICIES. 

The essential advantage of the Ordinary Life 
policy is that it affords to the insured the greatest 
amount of permanent protection for his outlay. 
At age thirty, a man may secure to his beneficiary 



18 EFFICIENCY 

practically any sum by paying about 2 per cent, 
of it throughout his lifetime. If he should attempt 
to accomplish the same object by saving a similar 
sum annually, it would require the compound 
operation of ordinary bank interest during longer 
than thirty years with little more than an even 
chance of his living long enough. 

The chief objection advanced against Whole Life 
insurance is the apparent necessity of continuing 
the payments during lifetime. This may be obvi- 
ated by allowing the dividends to accumulate with 
the company. Under this condition an Ordinary 
Life policy, issued at age 30, should be paid up at 
about age 65, and in the event of premium pa}^- 
ments being continued thereafter, should mature 
as an endowment between the ages 80 and 85. 

The Ordinary Life policy is attractive to the poor 
man and the rich man; to the former, because it 
enables him to carry an amount of protection which 
he could not afford at a higher cost ; to the latter, 
because he can turn his surplus money to better 
account than by investing it with an insurance 
company. In the middle class, between these 
extremes, the Twenty Payment Life is the most 
popular policy. It is free from the objection of 
continuous premium payments and involves a 
moderate degree of investment. 

THE MONTHLY INCOME POLICY. 

Since its introduction, about twenty years ago, 
the income policy in its various forms, has steadily 
grown in popularity. It is the most perfect form of 
protection conceivable, and, on this ground, appeals 
to all classes of men having dependents. Men of 
means will frequently take large policies on this 
form when they would not increase their insurance 
upon any other. 

The man of moderate income will take a much 
larger policy of this kind than he will one payable 



STAND A RI) FORMS OF IXSURAXCK 19 

in a lump sum. Thousands of salaried men ^o 
throui^h life without ever possessin^^ $5000 at one 
time. It appears to them to be a handsome amount 
to leave to their families. To the same men, who 
have been accustomed to a monthly salary of $100 
or Si 50, an income policy of $20 a month will seem 
pitifully small, but that is a liberal equivalent of 
$^5000. In such cases the income policy may be 
sold in twice the amount of ordinary insurance that 
could be placed. 

The arguments in favor of the ^Monthly Income 
policy are set forth in succeeding chapters. 

THE ENDOWMENT POLICY. 

When presenting Endowment insurance you are 
appealing to the Motive of Gain, or Selfishness. 
Your Canvass will consist of a showing of the 
benefits that will accrue to the Prospect, who is 
the contemplated beneficiary, the payment of a 
death claim under the contract being a secondary 
consideration. 

Every application for insurance would be upon 
the Endowment plan, but for the comparatively 
high cost of this form. The sole obstruction to 
3^our proposition — the necessit}^ for paying the 
premium — is greater in this case than in that of a 
Life policy. It is therefore more than ever to be 
urged that when you are trying to sell an Endow- 
ment, you keep the cost out of your statement 
until you have created the Desire. This is not at 
all difficult. In fact, a perfectly logical and lucid 
presentation of your proposition can be made 
without actually mentioning the premium until 
the close of it. 

You expatiate upon the value of an Endowment 
policy as a medium for saving — the great advantage 
to a man in receiving say, $10,000 when experience 
and training have qualified him to make good use 
of the money. You will explain the Paid-up 



20 EFFICIENCY 

Insurance option, using 3^our Single Premium 
Table for the purpose, although the figures thus 
obtained will be somewhat too low. You will 
impress upon him that, through the exercise of 
this option, he may acquire an absolute estate of, 
say $25,000, which will cost nothing to maintain, 
and which cannot be impaired, unless he chooses 
to borrow upon it. Not one man in 100,000 is 
worth $25,000 clear at any time of his life. 

You will draw attention to the Life Income 
option which may be the most attractive to him 
twenty years hence. Your Annuity Table will 
give you the income that the company will pay 
on a matured Endowment. 

You will go on to show your Prospect that he 
will not tie his money up be3^ond control. After 
paying three premiums he can borrow 70% of his 
net payments; in the tenth year about 90%; in 
the fifteenth over 100%; and at the end of the term 
the company will return him 130% of all the 
money he has paid in premiums, in addition to 
having given him insurance for twenty years. 

Now notice that 3^ou have not yet stated the 
Cost. You may do so at this stage, when the Cost 
will appear less formidable by reason of the alluring 
picture of the Returns. 

A man will sometimes hesitate to take Endow- 
ment Insurance for fear that he may not be able to 
keep it up. This consideration should not weigh so 
heavily in the case of Endowment as in that of 
some less costly form of policy. The former is the 
easier to maintain in the event of monetary strin- 
gency, because of its greater Loan and Surrender 
Values. 

The objection is sometimes raised that if a 
young man takes Endowment Insurance he will 
be incapable of carr3ang a considerable amount 
of protection when a later need arises. This con- 
tention is exacth^ contrary to the fact, as the 
follow^ing" illustration demonstrates. 



STANDARD FORMS OF INSURANCP: 21 

A man ai^cd 25 takes $10,000—20 year Endow- 
ment policy, non-par, premium $416.00. At the 
end of ten years he desires, for the protection of 
dependents, the largest amount of insurance pos- 
sible without increased expenditure. He ceases 
payments on the Endowment policy which is 
extended for ten years without premiums. The 
$416.00 thus made available is applied to the 
purchase at age 35 of $19,000 of non-participat- 
ing Straight Life Insurance. During a period 
of ten years the insured is covered by $29,000 of 
insurance. At the end of 20 years his $10,000 
Endowment policy expires and the Company pays 
him $4,800. With this money, applied as a sin- 
gle premium, he purchases at age 45, $10,000 of 
paid-up Life Insurance. And from that time 
on, by the continuation of the payment of the 
original outlay, that is to say $416.00, continues 
to enjoy protection to the extent of $29,000 dur- 
ing his life. 

The Endowment is distinctly an investment, and 
a very good investment, at that. It is a fair 
assumption that the insurance element is worth to 
the insured all that he pays for it. If we deduct 
the Term premium for the corresponding period 
from the Endowment premium, the balance will 
show a high rate of compound interest in the 
returns. This is a perfectly logical manner of 
presenting the matter. 

The opportunities for selling ]\Ionthly Income 
Endowment are greatly neglected. This is a form 
of investment insurance, which, when properly 
represented, is peculiarly attractive to professional 
men, teachers, and certain classes of salaried em- 
ployees. There are in every large city, thousands 
of persons to whom this form of insurance can be 
sold more readily than any other. 

Sufficient attention is not paid to long term 
Endowments. I strongly recommend you to 



22 EFFICIENCY 

study the features of these carefully, comparing 
them with shorter term Limited Payment Life 
policies. The former exhibit the magic effects of 
Compound Literest, enabling the company to con- 
vert a small additional annual payment into a 
substantially larger return at the end of the period. 

To illustrate the advantageous use you may 
make of the long term Endowment: As a rule it 
will be found easier to sell a Forty Year Endow- 
ment at a premium of $300 to a man aged 35, than 
a Whole Life at a premium of $279. In the former 
case you are offering a policy with materially 
greater current values and a definite termination. 
To the Love of Kin Motive, you are adding the 
appeal to Love of Gain. 

Again ; you have a Prospect aged 25, to whom you 
are suggesting a Twenty Payment Life at a cost of 
$312. It is highly probable that you could sell 
him a Thirty Year Endowment more readily and 
with greater satisfaction to himself. For the 
latter he will pay no more than $326. 

On comparison you will see that there is no 
advantageous feature of the Twenty Payment Life 
which you will fail to find in the Endowment. 
The only objection that your Prospect can raise is 
against the longer term, but that may be easily 
disposed of. If he should desire to terminate his 
Endowment in twenty years, he may do so on 
terms more favorable than those of the alternative 
proposition. 

You will find it profitable to make comparative 
analyses of these and other policies. The practice 
will promote a better knowledge of the forms 
examined and furnish you with many practical 
canvassing points. For example : In the course of 
such a study you will discover that a man aged 
fifty-five may secure a Twenty Year Endowment 
at a premium only slightly higher than that of a 
Whole Life policy. You will generally find that 
the former is the more attractive proposition to 
him. 



CHAPTER IV. 
SECURING AND APPROACHING PROSPECTS. 

SECURING prospects, although a primary 
necessity in the work of a Life Insurance 
agent, is the least difficult phase of it. Any man of 
ordinary intelligence and mental activity may keep 
his supply of canvassing material constantly at 
high-water mark with little effort. When we 
consider that Life Insurance is almost a universal 
need, it docs not appear that there can be any 
lack of persons favorable to an approach on the 
subject. 

The fact remains, nevertheless, that many agents 
overlook the most obvious and ready sources of 
prospects. A single Sunday issue of any city 
paper will afford enough suggestions in this connec- 
tion to keep the most active man busy for two 
months, or more. The agent who has one policy- 
holder possesses the nucleus of unlimited prospects. 
The registers of many highly successful solicitors 
show that each policy recorded was traceable to 
one previously placed. This kind of business 
represents the greatest returns for the energy 
expended. The smaller the circle in which you 
work, the greater the economy of eft'ort. 

If anyone doubts the plentifulness of prospects, 
let him make a straight canvass for seven hours 
of six days in succession. He will obtain enough 
material to supply him with sixty days' closing 
work. This is one of the most effective means of 
securing prospects. The degree of success attained 
will depend upon the temperament and qualifica- 
tions of the agent. The man who is an adept at 

23 



24 EFFICIENCY 

Approach cannot adopt any better method of 
seeking prospects than the straight canvass. 

Don't depend upon the lazy agent's prospect. 
He is everlastingly looking for the rare man who 
wants insurance. He is not a salesman. He is 
merely an order clerk. The manager can send 
one of the bookkeepers out to write a case of that 
sort. All you should look for in a prospect is a 
man reasonably likely to be interested in insurance. 
You are not half way efficient unless you have 
confidence in your ability to do the rest. 

THE APPROACH. 

Having marked a man as a likely prospect, the 
first step is to approach him. Before doing so, it is 
well to learn as much about him as you can. Any 
item of information, no matter how seemnngly 
irrelevant, may aid you in the after canvass. 
The tim.e spent in this preliminary effort must be 
regulated by the prospective profit in the case. 

This preparatory inquiry is of the utmost 
importance. It should enable you to decide on 
the amount and kind of polic}^ as well as the motive 
to be played on. Not infrequently you will be in 
a position, from the knowledge secured beforehand, 
to prepare a clear-cut canvass and to present a 
definite proposition, distinctly adapted to the condi- 
tions of the case. This, in itself, will constitute 
a sufficient and business-like reason for your ap- 
proach. It will fiatter your prospect and excite 
his respect for you as a salesman. He will appre- 
ciate the fact that you have taken the trouble to 
gain the information necessary to the formation of 
a logical proposition. And he will readily concede 
a distinction between you and the haphazard 
agent, whose only excuse for calling upon him is 
that '*he would like to sell him some insurance." 

Nov/, as we prepare to confront our prospect some 
of us are beginning to feel anxious, nervous — and 



SECURING P R () S P E C T S 25 

even fearful. If that is your state, I say: " Don't 
let it discoura<^c you." Sclf-confidcncc is a very 
valuable qualifieation for the salesman, but he 
may make a big suceess without it. One of the 
lar<^est writers of Life Insuranee in this eountry is 
painfully diffident after eight years of suecess. He 
finds difficulty in summoning eourage to enter the 
office of a man with whom he has an appointment. 
His Approach is miserably weak and he needs to 
employ another to prepare prospects for him. But, 
once he enters upon his canvass, he is a veritable 
whirlwind. The man who pitied him for his bash- 
fulness at the opening of the interview presently 
finds himself as a wisp of straw in his hands. 

Intense interest in your proposition will banish 
self-consciousness and fear. Cultivate intensity 
and concentration. This will make your canvass 
forceful, no matter how halting may have been your 
Approach. Of the tw^o, it were ten times more 
preferable to be a good closer than to be a good 
opener. You will probably gain self-confidence 
with increased efficiency, but never forget that you 
may become a star salesman and remain as diffident 
as a debutante. Many a promising man has 
abandoned the career of Life Insurance because he 
was persuaded that he could not succeed without 
Self-Assurance. 

I have no thought of discounting the value of a 
pleasing personality, but it sinks into insignificance 
under a powerful presentation of a policy. Some 
of the most successful salesmen are positively 
repulsive in appearance. Not a few suffer from 
physical defects that arc fearful handicaps. A 
man who was for years in the million-dollar class 
of Life Insurance producers exuded a disgusting 
odor from his person as a result of diabetes. He 
was keenly conscious of this disagreeable fact, but 
five minutes after he and a prospect were seated 
together both completely forgot everything but 
the proposition under consideration. 



26 EFFICIENCY 

I have dwelt upon this point for the encourage- 
ment of any among you that may belong to the 
numerous class who are constitutionally diffident 
in approaching strangers. If you cannot overcome 
this difficulty, you may minimize its effect by 
strengthening yourself in the more important 
stages of the Canvass. If you lack skill in inserting 
the wedge, acquire force to drive it home. Thus, 
though your closing interviews may be compara- 
tively few, your percentage of applications secured 
will be exceptionally high. 

Any one of the many text-books on Life Insurance 
Salesmanship will give you a number of more or less, 
trite suggestions bearing on the Approach. I will 
restrict myself to an explanation of the principles 
underlying this phase of the Canvass. 

Getting in to see a prospect is largely a matter of 
knack. It is not sufficient to depend upon sheer 
nerve. That often leads to ''butting in" and over- 
looks the fact that the main purpose is not to see 
the man but to sell him. You might enter a busy 
man's office by the window, but it is very doubtful 
whether you could place a policy with him after 
doing so. 

Let us first consider the case of the man who 
comes out to see you. His very doing so betrays 
an intention to be rid of you there and then. If 
you are going to permit him to carry out his object, 
you had better not have wasted time on the call. 
This is the moment to measure your strength of 
purpose with his, and the result of this preliminary 
contest of will may exert a great influence in the 
ultimate outcome of your negotiations with him. 
If he has his way now, your entire purpose is 
hazarded, if not destroyed. If he yields to you, 
3^ou have advanced a step in the path which you 
must pursue to secure his application. w 

I will not talk business to a man with a rail, or 
counter, much less a grating between us. Not to 
mention the principle which we have just dis- 



SECIHIXC; PROSPECTS 27 

cussed, the psychological effect of the physical 
barrier is too much of a disadvantage to me. Nor 
will I open a canvass on my feet. The position is 
too su^<^estivc of quitting. 

If a man meets me under any of these conditions, 
I say, in decisive tones: ''I wish to speak to you 
on a matter of business, Mr. Smith. We will 
step back to your desk for a few minutes, if you 
please." At the same time I move in the desired 
direction, quietly ^oing through the gate, if there 
is one, and offering my hand as I reach his side. 
The physical contact at that critical moment has 
a potent eft'ect. Nine times out of ten my man 
will permit me to lead him to his office. If he 
persists in knowing my business I say that ''I 
prefer to state it in private." This will seldom 
change his decision. When he repeats the question, 
I reply as pleasantly as possible: ''You will 
pardon me, Air. Smith, if I decline to deviate from 
my rule not to discuss my business under unfavor- 
able conditions. It is too important, and experi- 
ence has taught me that unless I may present my 
proposition to a man when he can give it his un- 
divided attention, I am wasting his time and my 
own." With this I put on my hat and hand him 
my card. Now, it has frequently happened that 
just at this point the right kind of impression has 
been created, with the result that the man has said, 
"Come right in." 

I cannot too strongly condemn the practice of 
trickery, equivocation, or deception in the effort 
to secure an interview. It is the poorest sort of 
introduction to a man whose confidence you must 
gain in order to do business with him. You cannot 
open your canvass under a worse condition than 
that of having a subject moved by anger, surprise, 
or disappointment, occasioned by your devious 
method of gaining entrance to his office. 



28 EFFICIENCY 

PASSING THE BARRIERS. 

Let us liken the Canvass to a tapering wedge 
with the appHcation at the butt end of it. We 
must provide this instrument with a thin sharp 
edge, capable of being slipped into the narrowest 
crevice. This edge is the Approach. 

In many cases the prospect has interposed a 
barrier between him and you, though not you any 
more than other unappointed visitors. This he 
has been obliged to do in self -protection, if he is a 
busy and successful man. It is just such men that 
you most desire to see, and you must devise means 
of inserting the thin end of your wedge under the 
barrier. 

This barrier may be a rail, an office boy, secre- 
tary, or telephone operator. Whichever it be you 
must confront the obstacle with self-possession and 
the air of having important business with the man 
you seek. The very fact of its being important is 
sufficient reason for declining to disclose it to an 
employee. Tell him that pleasantly and enlist 
his aid in getting in. You can do this in a manner 
to flatter and gratify him: 

''I am very anxious to see Mr. Blank for a few 
minutes. I am in somewhat of a hurry, but if 
you'll be kind enough to let me know as soon as he 
is disengaged Til wait awhile. I shall be ever so 
much obliged to you." Deliver this with the m.ost 
compelling smile at your command. 

Now you have the young man interested in your 
effort. He has tacitly consented to do you a favor. 
Under such circumstances I have seen him jealously 
watching another man to see that he didn't get 
in before his visitor. When the coast is clear, he 
will either show you to your prospect's door, or 
inform the latter. ''Mr. Doe has been waiting to 
see you, Sir." In either case you will probably go 
right in. 

If, however, the clerk returns with an inquiry as 



SECURINCl PROSPECTS 29 

to your business, you arc up ai^^ainst a hard case. 
To send in a card would be useless. You must re- 
sort to a note. What is the difference? A great 
deal — though I can't tell you exactly wherein it lies. 
The novelty and the personal touch count for 
something, but the main effect is unquestionably 
derived from the contents of the note. Thought 
will suggest innumerable forms. Essential quali- 
ties must be brevity and truth. You must be 
able to stand for every word in your note when 
you meet your prospect. 

A highly successful salesman is quoted by 
"System" as using the following note or a varia- 
tion of it, with the desired result in ninety per 
cent, of cases. 

"Mr. Blank, a business card costs about one half 
cent. My time is worth fifteen cents a minute. 
But my proposition is so important, both to you 
and to me, that I can better afford to devote 
several minutes of my time to this note — and you 
will agree with me when you hear what I have to 
say." 

The following is the substance of a note which I 
have used effectively in Wall Street on some of 
the busiest men in New York : 

"Mr. Blank, my business is with you personally. 
I sincerely believe that it will interest you. At any 
rate, that is a point which you can decide in five 
minutes, — and I seriously doubt whether you can 
afford to forego that degree of investigation." 

In such cases my cutting edge had to be un- 
usually long, so that it would keep on driving in and 
enable me to create immediate interest. I had to 
make good on the "five minutes" proposition in my 
note. 

These prospects w^re never approached without 
careful preparation. I was always well-informed 
as to my man's business and domestic affairs, and 
ready to make in three minutes some statement 
logically calculated to interest him in one or the 



30 EFFICIENCY 

other connection and convince him that I had 
devoted mature thought to the matter. 

The telephone operator is the most difficult 
barrier to pass. The man at the other end of the 
wire is sure to ask your business and you cannot 
employ the note. I resort to a scheme which 
converts this difficulty into something of an 
advantage. 

When the girl turns with ''Mr. Blank would like 
to know your business, please," I lean over the 
switchboard and say, so that my prospect miay 
hear me, ''Very well, kindly let me have that 
receiver one moment." Then I talk to my man 
and can generally gain his consent to see me. 
(This method was not practicable when the tele- 
phone girls wore a sort of electrocuting contrivance 
over their heads.) 

Underlying all these suggestions are principles of 
psychology. We cannot examine them closely but 
it may be stated that your appeal for an interview 
must be based on one of four different grounds. 
They are: Personal Interest, Business Dut}^ Sense 
of Fairness or Sympathy, or Natural Instinct for 
choosing the easier of Two Courses. 

I have given an illustration of the first in the case 
of the clerk whose interest you arouse. You may 
excite the Sense of Business Duty in the president 
of a corporation, to whom you wish to present a 
proposition for commercial insurance, by a note 
stating that you desire to see him on a matter con- 
cerning the stockholders of his company. The 
third ground may be taken with a busy prospect 
by conveying to him the impression that you too are 
busy and chary of wasting time. By puzzling your 
Prospect and exciting his curiosity you may induce 
him to decide that the easiest course is to see you. 
My Wall Street note was designed to appeal 
in some measure to each of these motives for 
acquiescence in my request for an interview. 



CHAPTER V. 
PRESENTING THE POLICY. 

YOUR knowledge of the policies you have to sell 
must be thorough and the presentations 
flexible. You must be able to describe them, not 
only in the ordinary course, but from the middle, 
in either direction, and from the end backwards, if 
necessary. When you can do this, interruptions 
will not embarrass you. You will be able to break 
off in 3^our Canvass to answer an inquiry, or discuss 
an objection, and readily return to the point of 
divergence and resume your explanation. 

Your statement of a policy contract should be 
divided into definite sections, logically connected, 
but separable, so that you may present them in 
varying sequence and expatiate on one, whilst you 
pass lightly over another, as the conditions of the 
case in hand demand. 

The policy should be as a lump of plastic clay in 
your hands, so that, without changing its essential 
composition, you can make it assume whatever 
form you desire, — protection for dependents, provi- 
sion for old age, security for the business man, 
saving for the salaried employee, and so forth. You 
must be able to present the same policy in half a 
dozen different aspects to as many prospects. It 
will be the same policy and the same canvass, but 
the presentation and the appeal will differ with the 
prospect. 

When you have acquired this facility, your 
Canvass will be neither haphazard nor stereotyped. 
Y'our talk will not be a dull monotonous recital, 
calculated to hypnotize yourself and put your 

31 



32 EFFICIENCY 

prospect to sleep. Instead of drowsing through 
your proposition you will present it in a lively 
fashion and with wits alert. Your story, although 
the same in substance, will sound different from that 
which your prospect has heard from a dozen other 
agents. 

Did you ever mark the contrast between an 
extemporary prayer and one which was part of a 
regular church service ? In the latter case, preacher 
and congregation go through almost automatic 
processes, the one in speaking and the others in 
following him. The former case demands mental 
activity on the part of the speaker and the hearers. 
The prescribed prayer is the smoother in delivery, 
but the extemporaneous prayer is the more forceful. 
Such is the difference between the routine canvass 
and the flexible canvass. 

A simple division of the policy statement is into 
four sections: i. Principal Benefit. 2. Secon- 
dary Benefits. 3. Contingent Benefits. 4. 
Kind, Cost, and Returns. (I may disclaim, in 
passing, any attempt at precision in phraseology. 
The main object is to secure distinctive terms.) 

In the study and analysis of a policy contract, 
adopt this subdivision. Assemble the different 
features under the appropriate headings. Do this 
on paper until, in a mental survey of the polic3^ 
each element falls into its proper place, without 
effort on your part. Then you will be capable of 
a flexible canvass. You will be able to transpose 
these sections in any manner, without the least 
confusion or impairment of the clear-cut quality 
of your statement. 

In the above enumeration the sections are given 
in the logical sequence. This may conflict with 
your present idea, but a little thought will induce 
you to agree with me. Probably you commence 
your Canvass with a statement of the premium, 
and then go on to an explanation of the surrender 
values. You do this because the policy statement 



PRESENTING THE POLICY IMl 

is so arran<^ed in your rate book and you have 
learned it by rote. 

Now, the effect of your method is to produce in 
your prospect's mind an adverse attitude at the 
outset. You open up by confronting^ him with the 
one difficulty which stands in the way of his accept- 
ing your offer and you do this before you have put 
forward your proposition. Then you go on to 
suggest the possibility of failure to complete the 
contract. You talk about surrendering a thing 
of which 3^our man has not yet begun to seriously 
consider the possession. 

If you were trying to dissuade your prospect, this 
would be the best way to go about it. These are 
precisely the features of the policy — cost and 
surrender — that a man's wife or friend dilates upon, 
when endeavoring to deter him from taking it. 
Your object is to Create Desire. Therefore 
present the benefits first of all. For my part, I 
seldom mention the surrender conditions, nor 
allow any word synonymous with ''lapse" to enter 
into my Canvass. I do, however, draw attention 
to the loan privilege. Leave the matter of the 
cost to the last and then rivet it to the settlement. 
Never let the former appear in your prospect's 
mind, except with the other as an accompaniment. 
It is not difficult to accomplish this. When you 
state the premium, write down beside it, in good 
bold figures, the ultimate returns. Make the 
point more impressive by repeating it again on 
paper in the form of a percentage. 

Now let us return to the sections of our policy 
presentation, and examine their component parts. 

Principal benefit. This represents the chief 
purpose of the insured. It is covered by the main 
provision of the contract. It is either indemnity 
or endowment. Under any of the various 
forms of life policies, the principal benefit is 
Death Indemnity payable in a specific sum, or 
as an income, to a designated beneficiary. Under 



34 EFFICIENCY 

the different endowment policies, the principal 
benefit is the payment of a certain amount, or 
income to the insured. 

Secondary benefits. This section embraces 
any extraneous features that may be attached to 
the policy, such as Total Disability, Accident and 
Health Insurance. These are distinctly benefits to 
the insured. 

Contingent benefits. These are the Loan 
and Surrender Values. They may be likened 
to the life-boats on board a ship. One enjoys a 
comfortable knowledge of their presence against 
emergency, but does not care to indulge in lengthy 
contemplation of their purpose. 

Kind, cost, and returns. Here we group the 
technical description of the Policy, the Premium, 
Dividends, and Options of Settlement. 

To illustrate: Twenty- Payment Life, Partici- 
pating, $10,000. Premium $378. Twentieth 3^ear 
$10,000 Paid-up Policy, or $6660 in cash. Divi- 
dends from 10 to 40 per cent, averaging 25 per 
cent. 

You amplify this bald statement by showing 
your prospect that, at age 55, he may secure paid- 
up insurance to the amount of $1.80 for every 
dollar he has deposited with the company. Or, he 
may take a cash settlement, in which case, after 
having enjoyed twenty years' protection, he will 
receive considerably more than the aggregate of his 
net payments to the company. 

Now let me draw your attention to the variation 
in importance of the several sections. When you 
are selling an Income Policy, Section Number Four 
is of the least consequence; when you are selling a 
Life Policy it is a secondary consideration; when 
you are selling an Endowment it is the matter of 
chief concern. If you are talking to a man whose 
salary is dependent on his continuous service, or 
to a professional man, whose income is contingent 
on his activity, you should expatiate upon the 



PRESEXTIXr. THE POLICY 35 

valuable safcL^uards ])rovided by Number Two. 
If your prospect is considering a Alonthly Income 
Policy, dwell upon Number One, — the primary 
purpose and the perfect provision made for its 
attainment. In a case of Business Insurance, 
Number Three, in so far as it relates to the value 
of the policy as collateral security and ttie creation 
of a sinking fund, will loom large in your Canvass. 
I must leave you to think out for yourselves other 
applications of the principle which I have been 
trying to explain to you. I will suggest that you 
take for your subjects in this practice, prospects 
whom you already have in hand. In time, and 
before long, you will approach each prospect with 
a definite idea of the particular kind of Canvass 
which 3^ou are going to bring to bear upon him. 
Your final decision in this matter will be controlled 
by the ^Motive to which you purpose appealing. 

Allow me to pause for a few moments to interject 
a caution. Don't become mentally muscle-bound. 
These instructions are worth less than nothing 
unless they can be reduced to the most effective 
practice. I am going to state the principal motives 
which influence men to take insurance. I am 
going to urge you to look for the dominant motive 
in your prospect. But don't forget that all this is 
merely the means to securing applications. Don't 
let science blind you to sense. If you can close a 
man who has no apparent motive or reason for 
taking insurance, let the system go. Close him, 
and satisfy your curiosity after you have delivered 
the policy. 

I remember a remarkably glib book salesman 
happening along with a publication which I had 
determined to buy on the first opportunity. He 
had hardly started his Canvass when I agreed to 
purchase the work. This evidently disappointed 
him. Instead of producing the order blank he 
resumed his talk. I insisted on closing the trans- 
action. He complied, of course, but he was clearly 



36 EFFICIENCY 

aggrieved. We were not acting according to 
Hoyle. I ought to have allowed him to show me 
the various features of the work and to make his 
verbal presentation of its merits. As a matter of 
fact, he only escaped spoiling the sale, because I 
was strongly desirous of possessing the book. 

Let me impress upon you, then, that you are 
learning and will practice the science of salesman- 
ship for the sole purpose of securing business. It 
is valuable to you in so far as it may be made to 
serve that purpose and no more. As an abstract 
study it is not worth the price of a bag of peanuts 
to you. It will make your work more interesting, 
but see to it that your interest is not centered in 
the theory b it in the application of it. 

You will find that the principal motives that 
prompt men to take insurance may be grouped 
under the following heads : 

I. Love of Kin. 2. Desire for Gain. 3. 
Prudence. 4. Desire for Utility. 5. Satisfac- 
tion of Pride. 

Seldom is a man moved by one of these influences 
solely, but in the majority of instances, one of 
them predominates over all other considerations 
for his action. Now, the usual set Canvass, with 
its uniform policy presentation, is an appeal to all 
these motives in general, and none in particular. 
It is spreading the jam too thinly to create a taste. 
In most cases preliminary inquiry, or tactful 
questioning of the Prospect, will direct you to the 
Motive, which is most likely to actuate him. 
You must concentrate on this, advancing such 
arguments and presenting such features of the 
policy as are calculated to stimulate the motive 
in question. 

Let us review our classification. You are work- 
ing on a man who cherishes his family above all 
things. You offer a Monthly Income Policy and 
dwell upon the completeness and security of its 
protection. You are appealing to his Love of 



PRESENTING THE POLICY 37 

Kin, but you should not make the same Canvass in 
the case of a man whose chief characteristic is 
selfishness, or Desire for Gain. You would present 
some endowment form to him, expatiating on the 
prospective benefits to himself, and hardly men- 
tioning Death Indcmnit}^ Your prospect is a 
provident man and habitually foresighted. You 
would appeal to his Prudence by emphasizing the 
advantage of a policy as a medium of saving. 
The Desire for Utility is a frequent Motive in 
Commercial Insurance. It leads a man to take 
insurance for the security of creditors and the 
benefit of executors. It induces a speculator and 
frequent borrower to carry policies for their 
collateral value. When Desire for Utility is the 
Motive, Section Number Three of your policy 
presentation comes into play. You enlarge up- 
on the Loan value; you draw attention to the 
effect of insurance in the enhancement of credit; 
you point out the maximum rate of interest on 
loans and compare it with the rates usually current 
in periods of monetary stringency. 

It is astonishing how often Satisfaction of Pride 
is the prevailing ]\Iotive. Many large applica- 
tions are secured by an appeal to it. We all know 
the influence of a list of prominent policy-holders, 
or the effect upon his neighbor of a man taking 
out a policy. 



CHAPTER VI. 
PREPARING THE CANVASS. 

ONLY the haphazard salesman jumps the 
track, or gets stalled. The man who has a 
definite plan and a prearranged Canvass may be 
opposed, contradicted, interrupted, and otherwise 
interfered with, but he will stick to the line and 
keep moving toward the terminus. 

In his progress it is necessary to take the prospect 
with him. This can be done only by inducing the 
prospect to think certain thoughts which shall 
carry him through the stages of Desire, Willingness, 
and Resolve. 

If the attempt to create this course of reflection 
is based upon general arguments and stereotyped 
statements, some of the agent's suggestions are 
apt to be weak, if not positive misfits. 

A Canvass based on a pre-acquired knowledge of 
the prospect's condition, and designed to stimulate 
a certain Motive will bring forth a Policy Presenta- 
tion and arguments logically applicable to the 
particular case. Such a Canvass has the double 
effect of Impressing the prospect and inspiring 
the agent with Confidence. 

This is scientific salesmanship — the application 
of commonsense principles to the task in hand. The 
agent who employs such methods will sell mxOre 
Life Insurance than another of greater natural 
ability, who makes his Canvass in a haphazard 
.manner. 

Let us assume that you have a prospect upon 
38 



r K K V A lu N (; T II i: can \ a s s 39 

whom you j^urposc calling, or with whom you have 
already an aj)i)oinlmcnt. You arc in possession 
of as much information about him as you can secure. 
(Don't treat anything relative to your prospect 
as unimportant. The fact that he plays the flute 
may be turned to account in your Canvass.) 

You set about preparing a definite Canvass for 
this particular Prospect, beginning by jotting down 
your data, somewhat in the following form: 

Prospect, John Doe. 

Superintendent Cole Auto Co., Salary S4500. 

Born Dec. 16, 1871. Age 42. Change June 
16. 

Widower. Two children. Son 20 years, self- 
supporting. Daughter 18 years, at private 
academy. 

Carries $12,000 Life and Sio,ooo Accident 
Insurance. Lives carefully; said to be saving about 
$1500 a year. Dotes on daughter and proud of 
son. ]\Iember of Jonathan and Country Clubs. 
Hobbies, botany and local history. Close friend of 
Richard Roe, who carries $25,000 with our Com- 

Your next step is to consider that data carefully 
and to decide on the form of polic}" best adapted 
to a man in these circumstances. 

Our illustration involves an obvious case. Our 
man has enough insurance to settle his affairs at 
death and to leave a few thousand dollars to each 
of his children. His son will be able to take care 
of himself — but there is not adequate provision for 
the daughter. 

The Alonthly Income Policy is clearly indicated. 
As to form and amount, a man who is saving S1500 
a year can well afford six units — that is to say, 
$60 a month — on the Twentv Pavment Life 
Plan. 

Your next move is the preparation of your Policy 
Presentation which you will map out in the following 
manner: 



40 



EFFICIENCY 



Section i 
Principal 
Benefit. 


Section 2 

Secondary 

Benefits. 


Section 3 

Contingent 

Benefits. 


Section 4 
Kind, Cost, 
Etc. 


Life 

Income to 
Daughter 
$60 a 
Alonth 


Total 

Permanent 

Disability 


Loan Values 
3d yr. . .$ 522 
5th " . . 1092 
loth '* . . 2688 
15th " .. 4547 
20th " . . 6804 
From 40% to 
about 75% 


20-Pay ^lo. 
Inc. 
$14,400 
$60 Alonthly 
Premium 
$463.80. 



Note. We are using a Non-participating 
Premium in this case. 

Now you proceed to jot down the heads of your 
arguments, having decided that you are going to 
make your Canvass mainly, if not entirely, on the 
perfect protection and the low cost as compared with 
the benefit. Your memoranda will assume some- 
thing of the following form. 

Protection perfect. Daughter absolutely as- 
sured of income for life. Contract creates trust 
in hands of one of the strongest financial institu- 
tions in the country. Income cannot be sold, 
hypothecated, nor impaired in any way. 

To secure same protection otherwise, would be 
necessary to bequeath sum of $18,000 assuming 4% 
might be earned on it continuously. Executors 
may die, fail in judgment, or prove derelict. In 
any case they must make charge for their services. 

Beneficiary's present expectation of life 44 years. 
After Prospect has exhausted his expectation she 
will still have 25 years, but annuitants are notably 
more than ordinarily long-lived. 

In consideration of Prospect paying $463 a year 
for maximum period of 20 years — he may make but 
one payment — Company undertakes to pay his 
beneficiary $720 a year for minimum period of 20 



PRE PA HI XG THE CANVASS 41 

years and as much lon<;cr as she lives, which may 
be 60 years or more. To repeat: Prospect pays 
trifle more than 3% of $14,400 for 20 years at 
utmost. Company pays 5^ of same amount 
for 20 years at least. 

Xow write out your Canvass, adding any special 
arguments that may occur to you. ■NIcmorize 
it, but do not attempt to learn it by rote. Put it 
aside for future use. Make memoranda on the 
back of a card of the principal figures, if necessary. 
It is better to talk entirely from memory and this 
3'ou will be able to do with a little practice. 

Each of the first Canvasses prepared in this 
manner may occupy two or three hours' time. 
When you have been through the process a dozen 
times you will be in possession of the skeleton 
frameworks for all the usual policy forms and will 
have acquired facility in modifying them to fit 
individual cases. 

You should not begrudge the time and trouble 
spent in this direction. With such a Canvass, 
you may reasonably expect to close one in every 
three men upon whom you make the attempt. 
Your present average is probably one in every 
fifteen or twenty. It is much less laborious and 
much more effective to do your Vv'ork thoroughly 
and properly than it is to do it superficially and in 
slovenly fashion. 

The assembled memoranda consist of data 
relating to your prospect, the salient points of the 
policy you decide to be best adapted to his require- 
ments, and a brief summary of arguments to support 
your proposition. 

The preparatory Canvass constructed from this 
material should be as brief and clear as you can 
make it, consistent with comprehensive statement. 
Bear in mind that verbosity is not the object, but 
clarity and logic. 

In composing this Canvass, have in mind the 
three stages of mental evolution, which you must 



42 EFFICIENCY 

induce in your prospect, — Desire, Willingness, and 

Resolve. This consideration will lead to dividing 
your Canvass into three sections. These will be: 
(i) the Presentation of the Benefits; (2) a State- 
ment of the Comparatively Low Cost; and (3) a 
Strong Closing Argument. 

The Motive to be stimulated in this case is 
evidently Love of Kin. You will play upon it 
throughout your Canvass avoiding any suggestion 
that might divert your Prospect's thought from 
that Motive, and, therefore, ignoring Sections 2 
and 3 of the policy subdivisions. 

When you have completed it, after three or four 
drafts, if necessary, your Canvass should be some- 
what like the following. 

''Mr. Doe, I am taking it for granted that your 
son will fulfill his early promise of success in busi- 
ness, and that he will be able to take care of himself 
in the future. The proposition I have prepared for 
you relates exclusively to your daughter. I am 
going to show you a safe and economical method of 
providing her with an income of sixty dollars a 
month from the time of your death to the time of 
her death. 

''The kind of policy I have in mind affords the 

MOST PERFECT PROTECTION POSSIBLE and for that 

reason a greater num.ber of business men are nowa- 
days insuring under this form than under all the 
other forms of insurance combined. A Monthly 
Income Policy renders assurance doubly sure by 
guaranteeing that the provision which you make 
for your daughter will be effective, not only 

IMMEDIATELY AFTER YOUR DEATH, BUT AS LONG AS 
SHE LIVES. 

' ' You may, like many another man, have felt some 
uneasiness as to the ultimate disposition of the 
money which you intend to leave. We all know 
that women are commonly careless in money 
matters. They must depend upon the advice of 
others in making investments. Their inexperience 



PRE PA RING rili: CAW ASS 43 

renders them peculiarly liable to mistakes, with 
consequent loss. It is quite likely that some such 
considerations have caused you concern for the 
welfare of your dau<^hter, after she shall have lost 
the benefit of your care and advice. 

"The form of insurance of which I am speakin^^ 
removes all such anxiety. The death claim is 
paid as an income throughout the life of the benefi- 
ciary. The contract creates an absolute 
TRUST in the hands of one of the strongest and 
most conservative institutions in the country. 
The income cannot be lost, sold, encumbered, or 
disposed of in any but the manner agreed upon 
between you and the company. The money you 
design for the support of your daughter cannot 
possibly be diverted from its purpose. The neces- 
sity of investment and the risk of loss are entirely 
obviated. In short, you are enabled, through the 
medium of a policy of this kind, to carry the care 
which you exercise for your daughter during your 
lifetime, beyond your death and to extend it 
through her lifetime. j^ 

"It is safe to say that you could not accomplish 
the same object in any other way, except at consider- 
ably greater expense. Suppose that you should 
provide an income of S6o a month or S720 a year, 
by a four per cent, yield from $18,000. This is a 
sum nearly twice as great as my company requires, 
even though you live to completely pay up ^^our 
policy. Besides are 3^ou sure that the $18,000 
investment is going to remain intact and without 
depreciation? Executors may die, fail in judg- 
ment, or prove derelict. Even a husband is not 
always the best curator of his wife's property. 
Then, what institution will guarantee four per 
cent, for an indefinite term of years? Your 
daughter's present expectation of life is forty-four 
years, and even after you have exhausted your 
expectation, the tables give her twenty-five years. 

"As a matter of fact, Mr. Doe, you can't do 



44 EFFICIENCY 

it. If you attempt to provide for your daughter 
with a safe and fixed life income, independently 
of a Hfe insurance company, it will cost you con- 
siderably more than twice as much as by the means 
I am urging upon you. 

''Now let us see what my company has to offer 
you. We will give you a policy of $14,400 on the 
Monthly Income plan at a cost of $463.80 annually 
for twenty years, when it will be paid up. The 
contract guarantees the payment to your daughter 
of $60 at your death and a like amount every 
month thereafter as long as she lives. Should she 
die before receiving 240 instalments, the balance, 
or their lump sum equivalent, will be paid to her 
heirs. In any event the face amount of the policy 
will be disbursed. 

''Let me put the proposition in another way. 
In consideration of your paying to the company 
$463, for a :maximum period of taventy years 
(you may, of course, pay no more than one 
premium), the company agrees to pay to your 
beneficiary $720 a year for a minimum period of 
TWENTY YEARS and as much longer as she may 
live." 

"Or, suppose that we look at it in another light. 
You pay to the company a trifle more than three per 
cent, of $14,400 for twenty years at the most, 
and the company pays to your beneficiary five per 
cent, of the same sum for not less than twenty 
YEARS and possibly for fifty. 

( Here you start to close.) 

"It is a splendid investment any way you look 
at it, but that is of less account than the absolute 
CERTAINTY OF THE PROVISION for your little girl, 
whose welfare is of more concern to you than any- 
thing in life. 

"Mr. Doe, if our strongest trust company should 
say to you: 'What will you pay us to assure your 
daughter of a comfortable income during her life- 
time, — of a sufficient sum, paid regularly and cer- 



PRE PAR IXC. THE CANVASS 45 

tainly, to <j:uard her a<j:ainst any possibility of need 
or discomfort?' You would re])ly, 'Almost any- 
thini^. The price could hardly be too great.' 

*'I3ut that is precisely what our company, 
which is stronger than our strongest trust com- 
pany, does offer to do for 3'ou, and it undertakes 
to guarantee this great benefit at a cost of not more 
than S463 a year. When you have made the first 
payment you will be assured that should you be 
cut oft' the day after, or the next week, your child's 
material welfare will be placed beyond the range 
of doubt or misfortune. You can enjoy the com- 
fortable assurance that as long as she may live she 
will receive a monthly reminder of her father's 
forethought and care for her. 

''There is only one other proviso, — that you 
shall pass a satisfactory medical examination. I 
don't doubt that you can do so. At any rate we 
may settle that question within the hour. With 
your permission I will telephone to our examiner 
as soon as we have filled out your application." 

You will notice that several features of the policy 
have not been mentioned, but enough has been 
said to sell it in the majority of cases. Let the 
prospect raise other points if he desires. I have 
taken many applications for this kind of insurance 
without reference to the minimum payments 
guaranteed, until the delivery of the policy, and 
then pleased the purchaser by showing him that he 
had bought more than he realized. 

The arrangement of this Canvass is designed to 
promote particular purposes which will be pointed 
out in the discussion of closing. 

We must assume that you will formulate well-de- 
fined Policy Presentations for at least the standard 
forms of contract. You will rehearse these until 
the various features automatically group themselves 
in their appropriate sections. You will study these 
sections and their composite parts, so that you can 
readily decide which of them will bear with greatest 



46 EFFICIENCY 

force on certain persons, and which are best calcu- 
lated to stimulate certain Motives. 

Now, as you acquire the degree of facility in 
question with regard to three or four policy forms, 
you come into possession of the skeletons, or frame- 
works, of as many Canvasses. You will build 
about these foundations general and specific 
arguments. For instance, your presentation of 
Section No. i must be supported by a strong 
statement of the duty of providing for dependents, 
or the value of provision for the future. You 
should gather from an accident salesman some of his 
strongest points for use in connection with your 
Section No. 2, and so on. 

In order to keep your Canvass fresh and lively 
you must make constant alterations in the clothing 
of your skeleton. The garments will always be 
the same in their essential character, coat, vest, 
breeches, and the rest, but you should possess 
plenty of material to change the aspect more or 
less. Vary the color of the cravat, the pattern of 
the shirt, the cut of the coat, and so forth. 

Store up a stock of arguments. Make a practice 
of thinking out new ones. You will form the 
habit of carefully preparing a special Canvass for 
each prearranged closing interview. When you 
do so, you must consider fresh arguments particu- 
larly adapted to the case in hand. These should 
be strengthened by illustrations drawn from the 
business of your Prospect. You will find it a most 
efi^cctive practice to use the terms in which the man 
is accustomed to speak and think in his everyday 
work. ' 



CHAPTER VII. 
CLOSING. 

CLOSING is the most critical part of the Can- 
vass, but let me impress upon you that every 
phase of your project, from the preparatory stage 
onwards, is highly important and has its influence 
upon your final eft'ort. Whether you Close or fail 
to Close, will depend on your Efficiency, or lack of 
it, in the consecutive steps leading up to the 
application form. 

Now, let us assume that you are about to open a 
Canvass. An interview has been aft'ordcd you 
for the specific purpose of talking insurance. This 
interview is yours. You have a right to control 
its course, and unless you do so, a successful result 
is improbable. You start with a definite goal in 
sight and with a definite path leading to it. You 
and your Prospect must travel this road together. 
It is absolutely necessary that you keep him to it. 
I do not mean to say that you should not give him 
ample opportunity to talk to the point. What I 
mean is that you must not allow him to make 
excursions into the field of subjects foreign to the 
business in hand. If he attempts to do so, it is 
the clearest evidence that your proposition is not 
the most interesting matter before his mind at the 
moment and it must be that if you are to secure 
his application. 

Nothing will help more in keeping control of 
an interview than having a clear-cut idea of the 
Motive to which you are appealing, and conse- 
quently of the thoughts that ought to be running 
through the Prospect's mind whilst you are speak- 

47 



48 EFFICIENCY 

ing. He must be induced to mingle his interest 
with yours. You and your Prospect must forget 
each other and become thoroughly absorbed in 
the proposition under consideration. Your thought 
and his must run along the same line and in the 
same direction. 

Under such conditions it will not be difficult to 
prompt your Prospect by suggestion, to voice 
some of the arguments which you desire to advance. 
The most masterly Canvass is one in which the 
Prospect is made to ''write himself," as the saying 
is, and led to believe that he has made his decision 
by the independent exercise of his judgment. 

You must be prepared to put teeth into your 
talk on occasion. You will not, of course, be rude 
or tactless, but do not hesitate to express yourself 
strongly when there are just grounds for doing so. 
A great deal of failure is due to an over-desire to 
please, and a corresponding fear of saying anything 
that may in the least jar on the Prospect's sensi- 
bilities. Bear in mind that you and your Prospect 
are two business men meeting on equal terms to 
discuss a matter of importance to both of you. 
You have a perfect right to express yourself freely 
and strongly. Your Prospect will undoubtedly 
respect you for doing so. 

Too many agents have an idea that three or four 
interviews should be devoted to a case. They 
work on the principle of securing a gradually 
cumulative effect, which is the most difficult 
method of writing insurance. When you have 
said all that is necessary about your Proposition 
and have given your Prospect ample opportunity 
to say all that he may desire, there is nothing more 
to be done but to write the application. If this 
essential talk on both sides is accomplished at one 
interview, then the case should be closed without 
another. Whenever you open a Canvass, do so 
with the thought in mind of getting the application 
at that sitting. 



C L O S T X G 40 

Wc have likened the Canvass to a wed^c with 
the Approach at the thin end and the AppHcation 
at the butt. 

Your constant purpose throu<^hout the interview 
is to drive this wed^e completely home. In order 
to do so you must create in your Prospect's mind 
a favorable attitude toward your proposition, — 
but this is by no means enough. 

You may excite Desire and still be far from the 
accomplishment of your object. You may develop 
Desire into Willingness and even then you will 
not have reached the goal. Willingness must be 
capped by Resolve. 

Desire, Willingness, and Resolve. These are 
the stages of mental evolution in a successful 
Canvass. 




You will readily perceive the distinction between 
these conditions. A man may desire to possess a 
thing which he is quite unwilling to purchase. Or, 
he may be willing to buy and lack the resolution to 
do so. 

It requires no special ability to bring a Prospect 
to the stage of Desire. Carrying him forward 
to the condition of Resolve is the most difficult 
phase of the Life Insurance agent's work. It is 
Closing. 



60 EFFICIENCY 

This IS the critical point of the Canvass. It is 
the point at which Efficiency, or its absence, is most 
conspicuous. The good Closer converts Desire 
into Resolve, when the poor closer is satisfied with 
a promise which is seldom fulfilled. 

The prevailing Alotive creates the Willingness, 
and the same medium must be employed in clinch- 
ing the Resolve. Expert salesmen reserve one or 
more of their strongest arguments for this purpose, 
to be used in drawing the Prospect across the nar- 
row gap that lies between Willingness and Resolve. 

Closing being the climax of the Canvass, it 
stands to reason that the effect of the effort to 
close will depend largely upon the degree of effi- 
ciency which has been exercised in the preceding 
stages of the Canvass. It is much less difficult 
to map out a definite course and method to be 
employed in the earlier stages than it is to give 
precise directions for the Closing. Without doubt, 
Closing may be justly described as an art, but 
there is a great deal of knack in it, and the char- 
acter of the latter will vary with the individual. 
An adept closer can tell you the principles on which 
he proceeds, but he can never exactly describe the 
little knacks which he uses as lubricants to facilitate 
the insertion of the thick end of the w^edge. These 
are applications of psychological laws which he 
employs unconsciously, or, at least, without clear 
definition of them in his mind. They are the out- 
come of experience and observation, to which 
sources the novice must resort for the acquisition 
of them. 

Fear of Failure is the most prolific cause of 
Failure. On the other hand, the agent who enters 
upon a Closing effort confident of Success has 
more than half succeeded. Nothing will breed 
Confidence more surely than Preparation. Con- 
sciousness of Efficiency and a thoroughly prepared 
Canvass must inspire you with a strong sense of 
superiority in the contest with your Prospect. 



CLOSING 51 

Only a small proportion of men arc of the positive 
t^'^pe. The i^reat majority allow others to influence 
most of their decisions. Few are independent in 
thought. Seven in ten are deficient in backbone. 
In the ultimate analysis, most closes represent 
the submission of the weaker. 

In the specimen Canvass which has been given 
to you, Section One, the main purpose, was used 
to excite Desire. Section Four, the comparatively 
low cost, we employed to induce Willingness. 
Then, in attemj^ting to close by arousing Resolve, 
we swung round to the main purpose again. And 
this will be the course of most successful Canvasses. 

You noticed that we merged from one stage into 
the next without a break, or abrupt change of 
direction. This is an important matter. There 
will be divergencies in every Canvass. In making 
them avoid sharp angles and adopt curves. The 
Prospect's mind conforms to the latter without 
conscious effort, but the former give him a mental 
jolt and often disturb the effect which you have 
previously made. 

When you enter upon the closing stage of your 
Canvass, choose your words carefully. Be cau- 
tious, terse, and deliberate in your utterances. 
Avoid saying too much. The Canvass which is 
completed in the fewest words will almost invari- 
ably leave the strongest impression on the Prospect. 
Reiteration and amplification are apt to weaken 
effect. A point is best made in a statement 
expressed in a few well-selected words, and followed 
by a pause to allow it to sink in. Your constant 
object is to stimulate your Prospect's thought. 
Then give him time to think. The frequent 
pauses in a strong Canvass are the most eloquent 
portions of it. 

Through the earlier course of the Canvass you 
have led your Prospect along until he reaches the 
boundary of Willingness. Then he is confronted 
by the gap that divides him from Resolve, — just 



52 EFFICIENCY 

a three-foot ditch; no more than one good strideo 
Now you get behind him and push, — not suddenly, 
but firmly and steadily. At this point he must 
not be allowed to step back one inch. 

Did you ever handle a horse that was inclined to 
refuse? You didn't force him at the jump, but just 
held his head to it. So it is with your Prospect. 
If you keep him, head on, at the edge of the ditch 
which divides Willingness and Resolve, without 
relaxing your pressure, he is bound to go over. 

But, if your horse balks when he ought to rise 
and turns sharp round, you don't pull him back 
to the jump immediately. You let him have 
his way for the moment and canter across the 
field for a few hundred yards, circling so as to 
bring him up to his fence again when he has had 
time to get over his nervousness. 

This is the manner in which you must treat your 
Prospect if he breaks out of hand when you are 
making a strong effort to Close. Abate your 
earnestness, slacken your pressure, begin to gather 
your papers together, give him the impression that 
you are about to abandon the effort. Then, when 
he is once more at ease, gradually draw in the 
bridle, regain control over him, and try it again. 

There is a current fallacy that only one favorable 
opportunity to Close will occur in an interview. 
This is responsible for much premature quitting. 
If you have actually got 3^our Prospect to the state 
of Willingness, he should be closed before you 
leave him. It may take two or three efforts to do 
this, but each effort, if well directed, will bring you 
nearer to the object. 

You should be sure that you have your Prospect 
in the right condition of mind before you seriously 
attempt to close him. You may test the matter 
by a kind of feint, or tryout, but this requires 
uncommon dexterity to avoid a bad effect. You 
must be prepared, in case your advance proves 
premature, to slip back into your Canvass with the 



CLOSIXC; ,53 

promptness and smoothness of a snail into its shell. 
Once, however, having entered upon a serious 
closin<x effort, stick to it, with the determination 
of settling the matter at that interview. It is safe 
to say that a more favorable opportunity will 
never arise. 



CHAPTER VIII. 
COMMERCIAL LIFE INSURANCE. 

THE latter-day tendency of commercial practice 
is to throw every available safeguard around 
business enterprises. Speculative elements are 
eliminated or reduced to a minimum. Conserva- 
tism is the prevailing policy. Deferred liabilities 
are anticipated by timely reserves, and provision 
is made for adverse contingencies. 

It has been found by experience that all these 
buttresses of the business world may be most 
certainly and economically erected on the founda- 
tion of insurance in various forms. Thus the 
conservative concern of to-day protects itself with 
fire, burglar, employer's liability, credit, indemnity, 
and, perhaps, other kinds of policies. 

The primary purpose of any sort of insurance is 
to furnish compensation for the loss of a valuable 
asset. Strangely enough, business houses insured 
against the less serious and more reparable class 
of casualties for long before they awoke to the 
effectiveness of life insurance as a protection against 
what is frequently the greatest mishap that may 
befall a corporation or firm. In recent years, 
however, the value of this new factor in business 
conservation has met with such wide appreciation 
as to justify the prediction that the day is approach- 
ing when commercial life insurance will be as widely 
carried as commercial fire insurance now is. 

PURPOSES OF BUSINESS INSURANCE. 

Commercial Life Insurance is both a conserving 
and a developing agency. It conserves by introduc- 

54 



COMMERCIAL LIFE INSURANCE 55 

in<^ an element of safely and reserve. It develops 
by afTordin^i^ capital and eredit. Indirectly, but 
quite effectively, it embraces domestic insurance. 
The preservation of the business entails the welfare 
of the employer's home, and probably of the homes 
of those who work for him. 

Business insurance is applicable with equal 
efficacx' to the affairs of corporations, firms, and 
individuals. In either case it affords the most 
economical and practical means of providing 
against unfavorable developments. It is a certain 
way of forestalling uncertain events. 

The purposes which life insurance may be made 
to serve in the conduct of business organizations 
are so numerous and varied that only a few of the 
most obvious may be mentioned. Newly organized 
and young companies are naturally those most in 
need of protection against mishaps, but many of 
the largest and most firmly established concerns 
in this country carry heavy lines of commercial 
life insurance. 

It is now common practice among corporations 
to insure the life of an officer upon whom, by reason 
of his business talent, or technical knowledge, the 
prosperity of the company largely depends; 

Or an officer, upon whom, on account of his 
executive ability or financial standing, the banking 
credit of the company rests; 

Or an employee, whose position in the event of 
his death, it would be unusually difficult to fill. 

It is not infrequently the case that one man is so 
vital a factor in the successful conduct of a cor- 
poration that his premature death would derange 
organization, impair credit, decrease efficiency of 
operation, mar the company's prospects, and injure 
its standing with the public. The payment of a 
substantial cash indemnity would minimize these 
conditions and put the corporation in a position to 
repair the effects of the loss. 

Endowment insurance is taken by corporations 



56 EFFICIENCY 

for the purpose of creating sinking funds for the 
retirement of bonds, to meet the depreciation of 
plant, to strengthen the company under changed 
conditions resulting from termination of patents, 
franchises, leases, and various long-time contracts. 
Business insurance serves to protect minority 
stockholders, against the premature death of a 
man holding a preponderating interest in the 
corporation. In close corporations it is frequently 
employed to provide for the purchase of the stock 
of a deceased associate, and so prevent its falling 
into undesirable hands. 

BUSINESS INSURANCE— THE SILENT PARTNER. 

Life insurance is even more essential as a safe- 
guard to partnerships than to corporations. Asso- 
ciations of the former character frequently fail, or 
retire from business upon the death of one member. 
This because his knowledge or ability was the 
mainstay of the concern; or because his financial 
worth was the basis of its credit; or because his 
estate demanded a cash settlement which crippled 
its resources. 

In the first case the proceeds of an insurance 
policy would greatly lessen the difficulty of secur- 
ing a satisfactory successor; in the second, it would 
counteract the effect of the loss by enlarging the 
financial resources; in the third, it would enable 
the liability to be discharged without impairment 
to the working capital. 

Business insurance is much more necessary to 
the small firm than to the larger one. Many such 
concerns are run on the narrowest margin of capital. 
The slightest shrinkage of this generally entails 
disaster. The records of commercial agencies 
show that nearly thirty per cent, of failures among 
co-partnerships are due to death for which no 
provision has been made. 

The credit of a small firm is generally precarious 



COMMERCIAL LIFE INSURANCE 57 

and often restricted; its ca])acity for expansion is 
limited; its future prosperity frequently depends 
upon a continuance of uniformly favorable cir- 
cumstances. Under any or all of these conditions, 
life insurance will act in mitigation or prevention 
of loss. 

BUSINESS INSURANCE FOR THE INDIVIDUAL. 

There are many ways in which life insurance will 
serve the business needs of the individual more 
effectively than any other agency. A few of these 
only may be mentioned: 

To furnish his executors with ready cash for the 
settlement of and administration of his estate, and 
so preclude the necessity of sacrificing property 
in a forced market. 

To provide the money requisite to meet the 
inheritance tax. A fund for this purpose, invested 
in stable and easily convertible securities, would 
cost more and return less. 

To cover mortgages and other indebtedness; to 
protect creditors, endorsers of paper, financial 
backers or parties to a contract. As an anchor 
to windward during a speculative investment, or 
doubtful operation. 

Many moneyless men of unquestionable in- 
tegrity and acknowledged ability have found that 
life insurance — the safeguard against loss by un- 
timely death — has enabled them to secure ample 
means and credit for their undertakings. 

POLICIES FOR BUSINESS PURPOSES. 

There is no essential difference between a policy of 
business insurance and one of the ordinary kind. 
The former is usually written with a firm or cor- 
poration as the beneficiary. Its premium is a 
charge against the concern and its cash value an 
asset of it. The policy generally contains one or 



58 EFFICIENCY 

two clauses designed to meet special business 
requirements. 

Joint policies are commonly employed in com- 
mercial insurance, and, where the object sought is 
mainly or solely indemnity for loss by death, they 
fully serve the purpose at considerably lower cost 
than would be involved in separate contracts. 

The premium for a Joint Policy is a compound of 
that for the elder life on the regular form and the 
term rate on the younger for a corresponding period. 
As the reserve on term insurance is exceedingly 
small and runs out with the policy, a slight increase 
over the values of the regular form for the elder of 
the combined lives will approximate the precise 
values of the Joint Policy. 

In order to limit the element of term insurance in 
the contract many companies restrict joint policies 
to two lives. This need cause no difficulty when 
three or more risks are involved. Let us suppose 
that a trio of partners desire to be insured for 
$10,000 each under joint contracts. Their ages 
are 50, 47, and 39 respectively. You pair them in 
the following combinations: 50-47; 50-39; 47-39; 
and have three policies of $5000 issued. 

It will occasionally happen that a larger amount 
is required on one individual than upon the others of 
a group. For example: a corporation wishes to 
insure its president for $20,000 and four other 
officers for $10,000 each. You meet the require- 
ments with three joint policies of $10,000 each on 
two lives combined as follows: 56-29; 56-37; 50-42. 

SPECIALIZING IN COMMERCIAL LIFE INSURANCE. 

So many advantages accrue to the agent in work- 
ing business insurance that several of the ablest 
writers devote their attention almost exclusively 
.to it. A general knowledge of business methods 
and finance is necessary to success in the higher 
class of cases. In addition to this the agent 



COMMEIK lAL LIFE IXSIRAXC K o9 

should learn what he can of the particular business 
of the concern which he intends to aj)proach with a 
proposition for commercial life insurance. 

Small co-partnerships present a lar^c and 
promising, but almost virgin, field for this kind of 
work. By far the majority of the firms operating 
on less than $10,000 capital have the most pro- 
nounced need of life insurance. 

Policies of commercial life insurance will average 
much higher in amount than will those of domestic 
insurance. Settlements on the former are usually 
more readily secured. A logical suggestion for 
business insurance will generally command atten- 
tion and interest. Far from interfering with the 
writing of individual insurance, business insurance 
will be found to lead to it, and facilitate it. 



CHAPTER IX. 
MATERIAL AmS TO EFFICIENCY. 

JUST what and how much printed matter an 
agent can use with advantage may only be 
determined by his own experience. Among 
successful life insurance salesmen, some carry a 
satchel full of literature, whilst others restrict 
themselves to a rate book and application forms. 

Personally I favor the employment of as little 
printed matter as need be. A verbal statement 
affords opportunity for the strongest possible 
impression, and I feel that resort to corroboration 
weakens my standing with my prospect. I must 
secure his confidence in order to do business with 
him, and I prefer to assume that I have it sufficiently 
to induce his acceptance of any reasonable assertion 
that I may make. 

Furthermore, if you can make your entire 
Canvass without reference to any document or 
memorandum, you create the impression of being 
thoroughly posted in your business. For this reason 
I never use an illustration and but seldom a rate 
book. If a Canvass is to be made on acquired 
data all the details should be memorized before- 
hand. In other cases most of the necessary in- 
formation should be carried in the head at ready 
command. Every bit of practical knowledge that 
is available to you should be absorbed and made 
part of your permanent equipment. Policy forms, 
pamphlets, useful articles in insurance journals, 
and the rest should be digested and held ready for 
application. « 

It is rarely necessary to state precise figures in a 
60 



MATERIAL AIDS TO EFFK'IENCY Gl 

Canvass and much more cfTcctivc to substitute 
percentages. You should know approximately the 
premium at any age for any standard form of 
insurance policy and also the loan values. You 
are olTering, let us say, a Twenty Payment, Non- 
par contract to a man 35 years of age. It is quite 
sufficient to tell him that he will be charged slightly 
less than 3 per cent, of the face of the policy and 
will have loan values of about 45 per cent, in the 
3d year; 55 per cent, in the fifth; 70 per cent, in 
the tenth; 80 per cent, in the fifteenth; and 90 
per cent, in the twentieth. 

The objections to the use of illustrations are 
many. They encourage careless preparation on 
the part of the agents. They generally repel a 
prospect by their massive presentation of bald 
figures. They afford good excuses for avoiding 
interviews. They give a great advantage to com- 
petitors into whose hands they may fall. 

Economy of time and labor are promoted by sim- 
plicity. The agent should aim to simplify his 
processes and his mechanical aids. A policy 
register, prospect cards, a card index, and a supply 
of the "Record" and ''Detective" are all that he 
can possibly need in his business. 

The Prospect Card should contain all the data 
referring to the case, and a brief record of each inter- 
view, with its data, should be made on it. The best 
way of handling these cards is to keep them in an 
Index composed of divisions for every month, and 
each day of the month. Boxes, containing such 
card indexes, may be purchased from any stationer. 
When a card is not in immediate use it should be 
filed under the day when it is next intended to call 
on the prospect, or under some future month. This 
system avoids the trouble and confusion of numer- 
ous memoranda. It may be stated here that the 
next day's prospect cards should always be looked 
over and sorted the evening before. 

Many agents have found the Record Card of 



62 EFFICIENCY 

great value to them. Perhaps I cannot do better 
than to reproduce the words in which it was intro- 
duced to the force of the Home Office Agency of 
the Pacific Mutual. 

HOW DO YOU SPEND YOUR TIME? 

How much time did you actually turn to account 
in your business last week? You can't tell. Yester- 
day? You don't know precisely? The fact is 
that you are in the habit of spending your time 
carelessly and without calculation. 

Do you spend your money in the same raanner? 
Hardly, and yet time is your working capital. Its 
value is inestimable. 

Let us suppose that you devote six hours daily 
to canvassing. This is certainly less than you 
should, and probably more than you do. 

It is a safe surmise that one hour of your short 
day is consumed uselessly. One hour wasted 
each day means a day wasted each week. One 
day a week will run into fifty-two days a year. 
Two months of twenty-six working days wasted in 
a year. 

Think of it — but stop. Perhaps I am exaggerat- 
ing. Just turn your mind back over yesterday. 
Did the wasted time amount to one hour? Two? 
What about the day before? No better? Well, 
now ask yourself honestly whether in the course of 
the past month there was a single day in which you 
applied every minute of six hours directly and 
exclusively to the purpose of selling life insurance. 

The truth is that you fritter away at least one- 
sixth of your time, and virtually curtail your in- 
come in the same proportion. You never realized 
it, but it is a fact, nevertheless. 

When a business man discovers a leakage in his 
receipts or a wastage in his material, he puts in a 
cash register, or establishes a system of cost keep- 
ing. It is just such a remedy that I propose to 



M A r 1 : 11 1 A L AIDS T ( ) 1 : V I- 1 ( : 1 1: s c y 03 

supply to you. I will make it a simple matter 
for you to ascertain exactly the amount of time you 
spend in your work and how you spend it. 

The next page shows a specimen record card. 
When filled out one of these will give you a pretty 
accurate account of your expenditure of working 
capital for a week. It will not only show outlay of 
time, but the manner in which it has been applied. 
It ^vill enable you to check waste and detect misuse. 

On the back of the card is a conservative esti- 
mate of a year's work and results. The conclusion 
may look over-large to some of you, but the suc- 
cessive steps leading to it are within the capacity 
of all. Everyone can secure one interview for each 
hour's work. If so, he can aggregate 144 in a 
month. In the natural order of things, one half of 
the persons approached should afford an oppor- 
tunity for opening the canvass. It is surely not 
too much to calculate on the agent's reducing to 
prospects one in every two men who permit him 
to present his proposition. That leaves him no 
greater task than to close twenty-five per cent, of 
genuinely interested cases. 

There is one difficulty about this program. It is 
expressed in the first sentence: *^Six working 
days per week, six interviews per day." Accom- 
plish that, and the rest will follow inevitably. 
Almost any man in our business may write $216,- 
000 a year, if every week of his year embraces 
six working days, composed of six purposeful 
hours. 

Try it. Try it for one month — one week. Note 
the result and try it for another. In a short while 
your trial effort will have developed into a habit, 
and what appears to be an enormous undertaking 
will prove to be an easy task. 



64 



EFFICIENCY 
RECORD CARD. 



Record of Work Done by- 


Week ending 






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66 EFFICIENCY 

DETECTING WEAKNESS. 

Some of the most prominent Life Insurance sales- 
men attribute their success mainly to one particu- 
lar faculty — that of discovering the underlying 
lesson in every important experience and profiting 
by it. This I believe to be one of the most valuable 
habits that an agent can acquire. It needs no 
talent for its practice. Indeed, the man who is 
genuinely interested in his work cannot fail to 
exercise the perception and insight which will reveal 
to him the operations of cause and effect in his 
business dealings. It may be taken for granted 
that he will turn such revelations to account in 
the improvement of his methods and the increase of 
his Efficiency. 

The beginner should habituate himself from the 
outset to review and analyze his experiences. After 
a decisive interview, go to some quiet place and 
ask yourself, ''Why did I fail?" or ''What was the 
chief cause of my success?" Carefully pass the 
entire interview in all its details through your mind. 
To find satisfactory answers to your questions will 
be of immense advantage to you. It ma}^- enable 
you to detect a weakness or eradicate a faulty 
method in its incipiency. It may afford you a 
realization of some forceful argument or effective 
process which you employed by chance, and might 
otherwise, never repeat. 

Many salesmen unconsciously continue the 
practice of faults for years, and many others oc- 
casionally use successful tactics without definite ap- 
preciation of them. These are the haphazard agents 
who accept their successes and their failures 
without troubling to inquire into the cause of them. 
The scientific salesman, on the other hand, is 
constantly learning from his experiences. His 
Canvass is in a state of continuous evolution. ' He 
adds here and cuts out there. He adopts a new 
argument or modifies an old one. He varies his 



M ATI: RIAL AIDS TO EFFICIENCY G7 

method and alters his statements. These chan^^^es 
arc suggested by the effects and failures which he 
observes in his Canvass. His Prospects are con- 
stantly giving him points. The mistake he makes 
with one, he avoids with the next. The tactics 
which prove successful in one case he learns to 
apply in another. 

The chief difficulty with the beginner is lack of 
judgment. Want of experience may prevent his 
properly gauging his weaknesses and estimating 
his strong points. Without his realizing it, his 
approach may be poor, his Canvass may be insuffi- 
ciently pointed at the beginning, or too long drawn 
out; he may attempt the close too soon, or defer it 
too long. 

The intelligent and observant agent will discover 
these, and similar defects, but, at best, the process 
w'll be a slow and arduous one. Anything calcu- 
lated to shorten this process and expedite Efficiency 
must be of practical value. 

Now, I am going to offer you an aid for the 
detection of the weak and the strong points of your 
Canvass. A few trials will convince you of its 
practical value and effectiveness in strengthening 
your Canvass. It is a card which, for lack of a 
better name, we will call ''The Detective." It is 
distinct from the ''Record Card" which is designed 
to enable you to keep account of your expenditure 
of time. "The Detective" is intended to tell you 
what you do, or fail to do, with each Prospect. 

The appended specimen illustrates the use of 
"The Detective." It is a day's record of a hard 
worker. He approached 19 prospects, most of 
them for the first time; where they were second or 
third interviews, the figures indicate the fact. He 
secured attention in 14 instances, excited interest 
in 10, attempted to close 3 times, and succeeded 
once. 

What interferences do we draw from this card? 
The agent's approach is excellent and the first 



68 EFFICIENCY 

part of his Canvass is strong. He closed once in 
three attempts and is probably a good closer, but 
he has a difficulty in reaching that point. His 
Policy Presentation must be attractive. It is 
likely that he arouses Desire in a majority of cases 
where he gains attention, but there is some hitch in 
carrying the Prospect forward to willingness. 

The card also shows a marked unevenness in the 
day's work. Whereas, the agent ''gained atten- 
tion'' nearly every time, and almost as often 
''created interest" in the forenoon, the latter half 
of the day included a number of failures in both 
respects. 

The details from the specimen are drawn from 
actual experience. The agent in question was a 
beginner. The difficulty indicated by the card 
was traced to a poorly arranged, but a strong 
Canvass. He brought all his forces into action 
at the first attack and, when he had created Desire, 
his fire died down. He had no reserves with which 
to carry the remaining positions. 

In the case which he closed on a second interview 
he was obliged to modify his Canvass. He re- 
frained from repeating the Policy Presentation 
and, confining himself to his arguments, made a 
strong Closing Canvass without realizing it. 

The unevenness of his work was accounted for by 
too steady application, and easily remedied by a 
longer noon rest and a half-hour break in the middle 
of the afternoon. 

There was a little more difficulty in repairing the 
defective Canvass. The removal of some of the 
effective material from the beginning of the Can- 
vass and its reservation for later use, had the effect 
for a while of weakening the efforts to "gain atten- 
tion" and "create interest," but these stages of 
the Canvass were gradually strengthened. 

In a few months this agent was making a highly 
efficient Canvass and closing in an unusually large 
percentage of cases. But for the record that he 



M A T K U I A L AIDS T () K F V I C I E N C Y (19 

kept, — which was somewhat similar to the "Detec- 
tive" card, — he would, in all probability, have 
been much lon^i^^er in discovering his weaknesses and 
arriving at success. 



70 



EFFICIENCY 



THE DETECTIVE' 



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CHAPTER X. 
GENERAL SUGGESTIONS. 

THE following suggestions, if faithfully followed, 
may be depended upon to greatly increase 
Efficiency. Merely reading them, however, can- 
not be expected to produce results. They must 
be practiced and converted into fixed habits. 

SYSTEMATIC WORK. 

Your work should be regulated by a definite plan 
to which you have given exhaustive thought. 
You should dispose of your time with economy and 
precision. Have certain hours for actual canvass- 
ing and let nothing interfere with them. Dispose 
of office business during your noon break or after 
five o'clock. 

Set a certain mark for the year. Aim to secure 
somewhat more than the proportionate amount 
each month. Work each day with a weekly 
average in mind. Under such a method of sus- 
tained and definite effort any man must write at 
least $120,000 in a year. 

Bear in mind that systematic and effective work 
will not be possible if your leisure hours are irregular 
and misspent. ''A night with the boys" entails at 
least one lost day in business. The injurious 
physical and mental effects that follow loose living 
are ruinous to success in any serious line of en- 
deavor. A life insurance salesman should be a 
business man first, a social quantity next, and a 
gentleman all the time. 

72 



GENERAL ST'OGESTTOXS 73 

CASH WITH APPLICATION. 

The lari^c number of unplaced policies annually 
reported by every company reflects the uncer- 
tainty that besets cases in which a settlement is 
not secured at the time of application. It is of 
the greatest advantage to the agent to form a 
habit of using the binding receipt. In by far the 
majority of instances there will be no difficulty 
about the matter. I have found it effective to 
impress upon the application form, with a rubber 
stamp, in red ink, the following words: ''In 
the interest of the applicant the first premium 
should be remitted to the company with the 
application." When the applicant asks, ''What 
does this mean?" my reply is somewhat as follows: 

"If I receive your premium now, Mr. Blank, 
your insurance will go into full force and effect 
from the moment your examination is satis- 
factorily passed. Between that date and the 
issuance of the policy several days will elapse. 
Even after I receive it there may be considerable 
delay in its delivery, owing to your absence from 
the city, perhaps, or to your being too busy to see 
me at once. Now, suppose that you die in the 
meanwhile. That is not very likely I'll admit, but 
it is less improbable that you may become ill. In 
any case, if the company has received your premium 
the insurance is just as effective as though the 
policy lay in your safe. 

"On the other hand, if 3^ou defer payment your 
insurance cannot become operative until the 
delivery of the policy to you in good health. 
However,- the premium is charged from the date of 
issue and it would seem to be good business to have 
the benefit of all you are paying for. 

"That is what the Company means by stat- 
ing that 'in the interest of the applicant the 
first premium should be forwarded with the 
application.' " 



74 EFFICIENCY 

PRODUCING THE APPLICATION. 

The best time to get the appHcation before your 
Prospect is the very first opportunity that offers, or 
that you can tactfully create for doing so. 

I remember, when a kid, a wily dentist who used 
to allow me to play with his tools for five minutes 
before proceeding to business. He would contrive 
to put me into the chair with the tweezers in my 
hand. Then gently transferring the instrument 
to his own, he did the trick before I had time to 
get scared. Why, I almost pulled my own tooth. 

Try the dentist's practice on your next Prospect. 
Spread your application form out before him. Let 
him see it — touch it — and assure himself that it 
won't bite. When you ask for his signature later, 
you will have less difficulty in getting it than if 
you bring the blank out with the abruptness of a 
bad man drawing a gun. 

Let us take an illustration. At the opening of 
your Canvass the Prospect says: "I may change 
my occupation shortly. How about that?'* 
''Well, let us see," you reply, laying the applica- 
tion before him; ''just run over these warranties. 
Nothing in them that you couldn't sign to? That's 
all right then." 

You continue your Canvass with the great 
advantage of having your application before the 
man, and he brought it there. 

There are one hundred and one other ways of 
accomplishing this object naturally and logically. 

''What is the date of your birth, Mr. Blank? 
Thanks. I'll jot that down to save time." 

"You have a policy with the company, Mr. 
Blank? What is the number of it? Thank you. 
I'll record that before it escapes my memory." 

You will find that getting your application before 
your Prospect early in the Canvass is a great aid to 
closing. It will help you to make a trial close. In 
case you have been premature, it will enable you to 



GENERAL SUGGESTIONS 75 

retire without retreating. It will make it easier 
for you to come back to the close. 

EXTRA ISSUES. 

When you have been ne<^otiating with a Prospect 
for a certain amount and he seems disposed to close 
at a lower figure, don't press your point too closely. 
Take his application for the smaller policy and 
get a settlement. 

When you turn your papers into the office re- 
quest the issue of an extra policy to make up the 
amount originally considered. In a great majority 
of cases, you will place both contracts. At the 
time of receiving a policy — particularly if it has 
already been paid for — a man is frequently most 
receptive to the idea of additional insurance, and 
in such cases as we have in mind, you enjoy the 
advantage of his having seriously considered it. 

MAKE IT EASY FOR THE PROSPECT. 

Most men have an ingrained dislike for figures 
and find arithmetical processes difficult. 

When you tell your Prospect that his policy 
will, in the third year, have a cash value of $719, 
you subject him to the disagreeable necessity of 
calculating the proportion of that amount to the 
premium paid, if he is to ^ain an intelligent 
conception of your statement. 

You will find that the employment of percentages 
aids your presentation of the proposition. To 
illustrate: Policy $10,000, premium $257 — about 
2Y2 per cent, of face value. Cash value, third 
year ($530) about 60 per cent, of the premiums 
paid; loth year ($2010) about 75 per cent, of the 
premiums paid; 15th year ($3212) about 80 per 
cent, of the premiums paid. Final cash settlement 
$5260 — more than 100 per cent, of the total 
payments. 



76 EFFICIENCY 

Expressed in aiis manner, it is quite easy to get 
a grasp of the cost and returns of the policy. 

THOSE BAFFLING PROSPECTS. 

Some men have exceptional facility for creating 
interest in life insurance and proportional difficulty 
in crystallizing it into business. Such agents are 
frequently snowed under with Prospects, whilst 
they don't know where to look for an immediate 
application. 

If you find yourself in such a predicament, go 
through your cards and winnow out ten or twelve 
of the most likely. Concentrate on those. Go 
after them with the determination to ''Kill or 
close'' them. Don't let anything divert your 
attention from these ten or a dozen persons. 
Stick to them as a deerstalker follows game. 

You will probably close one or two and get rid 
of some deadwood at the same time. 

CULTIVATE YOUR POLICY-HOLDERS. 

An agent can hardly find a more prolific source 
of new business than the persons he has already 
written. Each of them should be called upon 
at least once in sixty days and their acquaint- 
ance cultivated by all possible means. In the 
majority of instances your policy-holder will 
appreciate it. He will influence business to you 
and give you additions on his own life. 

Look over your policy register. How many 
names of men do you see upon whom you have 
never called since you delivered their policies? 
In how many cases have you neglected to canvass 
their relatives and business associates? 

The entries in the registers of some of the most 
successful life insurance solicitors form links in a 
continuous chain. There is hardly a policy but 
has some connection with another. This is the 



GENERAL SUGGE TIONS 77 

kind of business that pays. It represents the ut- 
most production for the effort expended. It 
entails a steady increase year by year from the 
same amount of labor — and even less — because 
there is a constant increment of new business from 
that already done. 

You will be richly repaid for keepin<^ in touch 
with your policy-holders, — provided they have been 
properly written and honestly dealt with. 

DONT UNDERESTIMATE YOUR MAN. 

Most of us use defective yardsticks in our 
business. They measure short — and a whole lot 
short at times. Almost invariably the amount 
of insurance which we propose to a prospect is less 
than he is capable of carryin[,^ and often consider- 
ably less than he mi<^ht be induced to take. 

What is the result? Our inadequate policy 
produces the effect of a pre-prandial cocktail. It 
increases an appetite which is presently satisfied 
by some other a^^ent, to his profit and our loss. 

Don't be afraid to aim too high. It will be much 
easier to abate your figure than to increase it. It is 
not in human nature that a ten-thousand-dollar 
man should be offended by your estimating him at 
the twenty-thousand-dollar mark. 

You may have heard the story of the railroad 
conductor who, after going through his car in a 
fruitless attempt to get a twenty-dollar note 
changed, finally appealed to an old darkey. 

''Can you split this for me, Uncle?" he asked. 

"No, Boss," replied the colored gentleman, 
straightening his back, ''I suhtinly cannot break 
dat yar bill, but I mos' assuhdly thanks yuh fo' 
de compliment." 



CHAPTER XL 
INCREASING PRODUCTION. 

YV/HY does the average Life Insurance agent 
not do better? Why is he not a greater pro- 
ducer? 

The explanation is not to be found in lack of 
ability. The average production of full-time 
agents is less than $100,000 of paid for business. 
That is an amount which any man can secure if 
he goes about it rightly. 

I believe that the inadequate accomplishment 
of the majority of men in our business is attribu- 
table to a number of causes. I shall try to demon- 
strate the principal of these. 

LACK OF PURPOSE. 

No substantial success in any line of endeavor 
can be achieved without a clear-cut conception of 
the object sought and a well-defined plan for its 
attainment. 

Ask the typical Life Insurance agent why he 
is in the business. He will answer : ''Well, I 
want to make money and be successful." ''How 
much money and what kind of a success have you 
in view?" He has not thought about that. "How 
do you purpose making this money and gaining 
this success?" He hasn't any clear idea on the 
subject. 

78 



INCREASING PRODUCTION 70 

He is in the business for all it will yield to him. 
But what that is to be he does not know. The 
whole thing" is vague in his mind. He has never 
formulated his thoughts on the subject. He has 
never crystallized his desires. 

The first step on the road to Success — and it is 
an essential one — is a clearly defined goal and a 
])lainly laid out path to it. This is at once the 
foundation and the stimulus of effort. 

You must make up your mind w^hat you intend 
to be and to do. Are you ambitious of becoming 
a general agent? Decide upon the best course 
to follow in order to gain your object. Do you 
prefer to follow the more independent and care 
free life of the solicitor? Make up your mind 
what class of solicitor you shall w^ork up to — a 
$200,000 producer, a $400,000, a $500,000 or what- 
ever it may be. 

Plan the home you will build, the income you 
will enjoy, the car you will drive. Create a defi- 
nite goal and keep it constantly before your 
mind's eye. Each day make some advancement 
toward it, and never do anything which may re- 
tard your progress in the desired direction. 

A serious purpose and a settled plan will dig- 
nify your work and add zest to it. Mere money 
motive can never do that. 

Part of your plan must necessar'ily be the 
writing of a certain amount of business. Most 
agents commence the year with the intention of 
paying for a stated amount of insurance before 
the close of it and most agents fail to carry out 
their intention. These failures are not due to 
lack of ability but to want of system. 

On the first of January, the 31st of December 
appears to be a long way ofif. There's lots of 
time and the agent dawdles along until presently 
the first three months have slipped away and only 
Si 0,000 have been accounted for. No need to 



80 EFFICIENCY 

worry, however, there are still nine months. He 
continues to take it easy and the close of the half 
year finds him with $30,000 paid for. 

Now he wakes up and realizes that in the next 
six months he must do 40 per cent, more than the 
proportional amount. He goes to work seriously 
and at the end of the quarter has brought his 
total up to $55,000. Incidentally, he has produced 
the proper quota for a three months' period. 

With $45,000 wanting he attacks his task stren- 
uously, but with anxiety and agitation that do 
not make for best results. By dint of utmost 
effort he pays for $35,000 and closes the year 
with $90,000 — 10 per cent, short of his mark. 

Now this man has failed in his undertaking. 
At the same time he has produced $60,000 in six 
months, proving his ability to produce $100,000 
or even $120,000 in a year. He falls down simply 
because he has actually only worked during 
seven months of the twelve. 

There is not a man who reads this but what 
can pay for $100,000 in a year. I sincerely be- 
lieve that a deaf, dumb and blind man could 
secure that amount of business by merely going 
around for seven hours a day and handing out 
his business card. He'd come across a sufficient 
number of men who could be closed without can- 
vassing. 

There is a simple but infallible method of writ- 
ing a certain amount of business. Reduce your 
quota to the smallest practical unit : that entails 
getting down to work at the outset. 

Your figure is $100,000, let us say. Put it on 
the basis of $10,000 a month, $2,500 a week of 
written business. That is making ample allow- 
ance for rejections and other contingencies. Your 
working quota is $2,500 of business to be written 
every week of the year. 

You will have noticed that I said every week 



INCREASING PRODUCTION 81 

of the year. That is to say, you have a liability 
due on the 7th of January and you must begin 
on the 1st to prepare to meet it. 

If in any week you write no more than $'^,000 
your quota for the next week becomes $:),000. 
If on the other hand, you write $4,000 in one 
week, the excess is to be considered as a con- 
tingency reserve to be held against a spell of 
illness or a non-productive vacation. 

This simple system, followed seriously, is 
bound to result in the production of $100,000 of 
paid for business. As a matter of fact, it is more 
likely to result in a much larger production. 

FAILURE TO MAINTAIN INTEREST. 

Failure to maintain interest is another cause 
of shortcoming. This is a drawback with which 
we all have to contend more or less. In all walks 
of life men find it difficult to sustain interest in 
their w^ork. 

The Life Insurance agent usually starts his 
career with the fire of enthusiasm burning 
brightly and he keeps the flame alive for, per- 
haps, a year. But gradually it wanes and at 
last dies down to a condition of spasmodic flick- 
ering as the breeze of good fortune fans it or 
the rain of disappointment quenches it. 

How are enthusiasm and interest to be kept 
alive and maintained at a desirable degree of 
constancy? In a number of ways, of which the 
space at my disposal will only permit of men- 
tioning a few. 

You will find the habit of working on a regular 
weekly quota a powerful agent in securing the 
desired condition. Nothing will keep your en- 
thusiasm at par so surely as procuring applica- 
tions frequently. Steady production is the easi- 
est form of work. The man who writes busi- 



82 EFFICIENCY 

ness intermittently suffers the same loss of mo- 
mentum and waste of energy as does the way- 
train which puts on the brakes and gets up steam 
afresh at every station. 

If you have a set purpose in your business, a 
set goal, the constant contemplation of that pur- 
.pose or goal will sustain and stimulate your en- 
thusiasm. Imagine yourself enjoying the con- 
dition which is your ultimate aim and note your 
daily and weekly progress toward it. 

Fashion your goal of a piece of good stout 
hardwood. Paint it in bright enduring colors. 
When the wind of adversity or the buffets of 
difficulty tarnish it, give it a fresh coat. Keep 
it ever bright and alluring before your mental 
vision. This will feed and stimulate enthusiasm. 

Yet another means of sustaining interest in 
your work. Infuse the spirit of the game into 
it. Institute contests with yourself and others. 
Match yourself against some fellow agent. Strive 
one month to beat your record for the previous 
month or your best previous record. Make a 
bet with your manager that you Avill pay for a 
certain amount of business in a given time. 

Another way of keeping up interest in 3^our 
work is by studying 3^our business and con- 
stantly striving for increased efficiency. The 
physician who should depend entirely upon prac- 
tice for improvement of his skill would "soon drop 
behind in the procession. In order to make head- 
way he must read the medical journals and the 
latest books on his profession. 

So the Life Insurance agent who aspires to suc- 
cess and advancement in his business must keep 
posted on it. He must read instructive articles 
in the class publications and study books on 
salesmanship and kindred subjects. 

The time is fast approaching when it will be 
required of the Life Insurance agent that he shall 



INCREASING PRODUCTION 83 

be technically educated, just as it is recjuired of 
men in other ])rofessions. The pubHc demands 
better echication, the companies aim to furnish it. 
Soon there will be no room in our business for the 
man who is anything but a technical expert and 
an efficient salesman. Most of us will see the 
day when the uneducated, untrained, Life Insur- 
ance agent will be classed with the ''shyster'' 
lawyer and the ''quack" doctor. 

FAILURE TO MAKE USE OF POLICYHOLDERS. 

I have reserved to the last, one of the strong- 
est reasons why the average Life Insurance agent 
does not do better. There is in our business a 
powerful agency for production which is avail- 
able to all of us. Nevertheless, it is entirely neg- 
lected by many and utilized to the utmost by 
comparatively few. 

One of the most universal traits of human na- 
ture is pride of ownership. You see evidence of 
it on every hand. How often you hear men say : 
"My dentist is a wonder," "My tailor is the best 
in town,'' "My golf ball is a bird,'' "My machine 
has them all beaten." Yes, you find men boast- 
ing of every conceivable thing under the sun but 
one. You seldom hear a man say : "My Life 
Insurance Company is the best." 

Why should this distinction exist to the dis- 
advantage of Life Insurance? Is there any 
sound reason why this universal trait of pride 
of ownership should stop short in its effect upon 
the owner of a Life Insurance policy? I think 
not. Moreover, I believe that. Life Insurance 
being one of the most important of a man's 
possessions, it is quite possible to make the pride 
of ownership exceptionally strong in that con- 
nection. As a matter of fact, it is sometimes 



84 EFFICIENCY 

done, but the instances are so rare as to empha- 
size the general absence of the condition. 

The truth of the matter is that we do not ex- 
ploit our policyholders to anything Hke the ex- 
tent that we should. We can and we ought to 
make them as enthusiastic about our particular 
company as they are about any other concern 
with which they have dealings. 

But how? By precisely the same methods as 
other concerns employ. And those methods may 
be summarized as continued attention. 

How does a man acquire his enthusiasm for a 
certain make of automobile, for example? Sel- 
dom, if ever, merely by the use of it. After he 
has purchased, the manufacturer, directly or in- 
directly, keeps in touch with him. He receives 
circulars relating to the machine and reads adver- 
tisements extolling its superiority. The sales- 
man calls upon him at intervals to learn how it 
is running and takes the opportunity to increase 
his satisfaction and enthusiasm. He is not 
treated as dead-wood after he has bought, but 
is cultivated as a prospective customer for a 
repeat order and a booster for new business. 

An enormous amount of possible business is 
lost to Life Insurance agents by failure to treat 
their policyholders in the same manner. If we 
did as the automobile people do we should find 
large numbers of men taking policy after policy 
in the same company, just as they buy one model 
after another of the same machine, and recom- 
mending that company to their friends. 

Our policyholders are enthusiastic when we 
sell to them usually, but by neglect we allow 
their feelings to die. Cultivate your policyhold- 
ers. Make a point of seeing them at regular 
intervals. There are few practices of your busi- 
ness which Avill yield better returns for the time 
and labor expended. 



INCREASING PRODUCTION 85 

1 will close with a brief series of injunctions 
summarizing the conditions which you must 
standardize if you desire to bring your produc- 
tiveness up to an approximation of the utmost 
potentiality. 

Formulate a definite purpose and make a w^ell- 
defined plan for carrying it out. 

Organize yourself and systematize your efforts. 

Maintain your enthusiasm and stimulate your 
interest in your business. 

Study your profession and incessantly strive 
for increased efficiency in it. 

Cultivate your policyholders and make them 
a prolific source of new business. 

In these final sentences I believe that you 
will find a nearly complete formula for success. 



WHAT PROMINENT INSURANCE MEN 
THINK OF '' EFFICIENCY.'' 

"It strikes me as one of the most helpful works of the kind 
for the live agent that I have ever seen. It is an aid alike 
to llie 'man who knows' and the fellow who 'doesn't know.' 
It is especially strong in its treatment of that all-important 
part of the business — salesmanship." 

J. C. jMATCHITT, Editor and Manager, 

" Northwest Insurance, " 

Minneapolis, Minn. 

"It is a strong document, written along right lines and 
should be a great selling help in the hands of an agency force." 
MARSTOxN & SM ALLEY, General Agents, 

New England Mutual Life Ins. Co., 
Philadelphia, Pa. 

"I am in receipt of your most valuable booklet, 'Efficiency' 
and I am pleased to say I have- re-read the book the second 
time. I am very much interested in any literature on insur- 
ance, and can truthfully say your 'Efficiency' has more useful 
information, both for the beginner and the 'Old Field Man,' 
than anything I have ever read." 

IRA E. QUIMBY, 
New York Life Insurance Co., 
Victoria, B. C. 

"I believe your booklet to be the best publicatipn of its 
kind which has come under my observation." 

A. N. DES CHAMPS, Manager, 
-^tna Life Insurance Co., 
Bridgeport, Conn. 

"Your book, 'Efficiency' is the first and only real practical 
treatise on Life Insurance Salesmanship that has ever been 
brought to my attention. Brevity is an essential element 
in efficiency. You have boiled down what others have 
required volumes to say." 

R. M. MALPAS, Agency Manager, 
American National Insurance Co., 

Galveston, Texas. 



88 EFFICIENCY 

"It is my opinion that this is one of the most profitable 
and interesting treatises ever pubHshed in connection with 
insurance work. I am certain that I shall be more efficient 
than I was in the past as a result of a careful study of your val- 
uable book." 

M. MESSER, Manager Hoboken District, 
Colonial Life Ins. Co. of America, 

Hoboken, N. J. 

'*The plans of soliciting which you have outlined should 
be of tremendous value to new agents in analyzing their work. 
Chapter I is a new pen picture of the ideal Life Insurance 
Salesman." 

W. F. McCAUGHEY, General Agent, 

Northwestern Mutual Life Ins. Co., 
Racine, Wis. 

"It is all good, and any agent, young or old, experienced 
or inexperienced, cannot fail to find many helpful hints, and 
if he will then proceed to use his 'self-starter' and do some 
real thinking he should be able to make money from your 
information." 

CHARLES M. IDE, Special Agent, 

New England Mutual Life Ins. Co., 
Boston, Mass. 

"I think your little book is of the greatest value, not only 
to beginners, but to men who have had experience on the 
* firing line.'" 

WILLIAM H. RYAN, General Agent, 
The Penn Mutual Life Ins. Co., 

Brooklyn, N. Y. 

"I have read with a great deal of pleasure your booklet 
'Efficiency' and have passed it around our office, where nothing 
but favorable comments have been made upon it. It is well 
gotten up, both from the standpoint of arrangement and 
material, and I congratulate you upon your success in getting 
out such a book." 

EDWARD A. WOODS, Manager, 
The Equitable Life Assurance Society, 

Pittsburg, Pa. 

"I found it very interesting and helpful; and, frankly, I 
found nothing to criticize therein. On the other hand, it is 
not only intelligently compiled, from the lay standpoint, but 



WHAT IXSrUAXC K :\I K \ TIIIXK 8!) 

is practical from the jxirlicular standpoint of securing the 
application." 

C. J. EDWARDS, Manager, 
The Eciuitable Life Assurance Society, 

New York, N. Y. 

"I think it is one of the finest little books I have ever read 
on insurance." 

GEORGE U. SPIEGEL, General Agent, 

Pacific Mutual Life Insurance Co., 
Indianapolis, Ind. 

"The valuable little dynamc, 'Efficiency', has been received. 
I have read your book with interest and much profit. 

"The book is an authority which drives a nail home so 
thoroughly it sticks. This treatise w^ill make a man think, 
and then it tersely and cleverly unfolds suggestions on 
practical business methods that are invaluable to the fellow 
who believes in the survival of the fittest." 

W. C. HUTCHINS, General Agent, 
Bankers Life Company, 

Des Moines, la. 

"I have before me your favor of the 5th inst., and your 
Company indeed did me an honor when they sent me your 
booklet on 'Efficiency'. I consider it tiptop in every way, 
and I do not recall having mentally made any notes which 
would improve it. I think it excellent just as it is." 

R. O. MILES, General Agent, 
The Connecticut Mutual Life Ins. Co., 
San Francisco, Cal. 

"I believe that it is the best thing ever published for life 
insurance agents. Instead of having spread-eagle stuff 
covering generalities, as the expression goes, it gets down to 
cases and gives something definite that the agent can say." 
C. D. RODMAN, General Agent, 
The Northwestern Mutual Life Ins. Co., 
Louisville, Ky. 

"I will say for this booklet that it is without question or 
doubt and without exception, the best work on life insurance 
salesmanship, or any other kind of salesmanship, that it has 
ever been my pleasure to read." 

ROBERT M. GRAY, Agent, 
First Nat'l Life and Ace. Ins. Co., 
Hankinson, N. D. 



90 EFFICIENCY 

"I have read this little book with great pleasure, and want 
to assure you that I have gained much valuable information 
from the same. I do not know that I could offer any sugges- 
tions at all for its improvement, as it seems to me that you 
have covered the ground thoroughly." 

E. G. SIMMONS, Vice-President, 
Pan-American Life Insurance Co., 
New Orleans, La. 

** We have received the booklet entitled 'Efficiency' and wish 
to say that we have never seen anything which looked to us 
haif as good." 

PARKER & HINKLEY, General Agents, 

New England Alutual Life Ins. Co., 
Buffalo, N. Y. 

"I have read the papers very carefully, and wish to con- 
gratulate you most sincerely upon the exhaustive handling 
you have given the subject. You write like an artist. What 
you say is effective and beautiful. All my criticism may be 
bunched in the one word, ' splendid. ' ' ' 

CHARLES W. PICKELL, Manager, 
Massachusetts IMutual Life Ins. Co., 
Los Angeles, Cal. 

"I want to say that after reading the booklet carefully I 
unhesitatingly pronounce it as a very valuable one, indeed. 
I am using some parts of it in the management of my own 
office, and shall employ more of the ideas it contains in time 
to come." 

A. F. SOMMER, Superintendent, 

Metropolitan Life Ins. Co., 
Cincinnati, Ohio. 

"Your book seems to me to be the most direct trail to 
successful and constructive life insurance salesmanship. . . . 
I look upon Chapters, 4, 5, 6, and 7 as the guiding stars to my 
future success in the selling of life insurance, and take this 
opportunity to tell you I am deeply grateful to you and your 
Company for sending the book to our offfce." 

JOHN J. O'NEILL, 
The Penn Mutual Life Ins. Co., 

Philadelphia, Pa. 

" Permit me to say that the little booklet entitled 'Efficiency' 
is the very best of its kind it has been my privilege to read, and 
is equally useful to experienced as well as inexperienced life 



W H A T I X S U R A \ (' K M K X Till X K 1>1 

insurance men, since it covers praelieally every phase oi the 
business." 

J. J. TYNDALL, District Manager, 
The Union Central Life Ins. Co., 
El Paso, Texas. 

"I consider it the very best thing I have ever seen, and all 
my agents endorse this statement." 

J. W. DICKSOiX, General Agent, 

The Pacific Mutual Life Ins. Co., 
Anderson, S. C. 

"I have on hand for acknowledgment your valuable book- 
let 'Efficienc}^', and have no hesitation in expressing my en- 
thusiastic approval of the very clever and intelligent way you 
have handled your subject. Your work is an acquisition 
that should appeal strongly to all insurance men, as it is 
brimful with the best insurance literature that I have seen 
anywhere for the practical purpose of training agents, there- 
fore the good it will do is inconceivable." 

J. B. xMORRISETTE, President, 
The Life Underwriters' Assn. of Canada, 
Quebec, Que. 

"I am delighted with the little book entitled 'Efificiency.* 
I have found it exceedingly suggestive, and every now and 
then in its pages I find some new viewpoint which is exceed- 
ingly helpful. I want to thank you most heartily for this 
work which you have done for the field men." 

H. EVERETT FARNHAM, General Agent, 

The Connecticut Mutual Life Ins. Co., 
Saint Joseph, Mo. 

** I want you to know how^ much I enjoyed 'Efficiency'. Be- 
tween its covers can be found in concrete form so many 
things tersely put that are usually the subject of voluminous 
writing." 

W.M. H. KIXGLSEY, Second Vice-Pres., 
The Penn Mutual Life Ins. Co., 
Philadelphia, Pa. 

"It is a splendid work, and I think I have never read a book 
explaining in such clear, simple language the several subjects 
which .it treats. . . . There are valuable suggestions all 
through the work for the experienced solicitor as well as for 
the beginner." 

E. M. FRAXCE, General Agent, 

State Mutual Life Assurance Co., 
Cleveland, Ohio. 

















The 








PSYCHOLOGY 








of A SAT.R 

By FORBES LINDSAY 

This Book treats of the mental processes 
involved in a sale. The subject Is handled 
in a practical manner, with a strict 
avoidance of fanciful theory. The prin- 
cipal divisions are : The Inwardness of a 
Sale; Association of Ideas; Attitude of 
the Salesman; The Approach; The 
Mental Attitude of the Prospect; The 
Canvass ; The Close and Auto-Suggestion. 
This book is designed to be a companion 
to • ' EFFICIENCY " by the same author. 

PRICE 

FLEXIBLE LEATHER :: $1.00 
STIFF PAPER ;: :: .75 






c 


T 

HICAG 

3URANC 


HE SPECTATOR COMPAN 

Office: 135 William S 

E Exchange. NEW YOF 


Y 

TREET, 
IK. 



